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MIDDLESEX COUNTY MANUAL 



io. 2 



Published by the 

PENHALLOW PRINTING COMPANY, 12 MIDDLE ST. 

LOWELL, MASS. 

1878. 






Ft*. 



Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1878, 
by the Penhallow Printing Company, in the Clerk's oilice 
of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



PREFACE. 



We take pleasure in presenting to our 
readers the Middlesex County Manual. 

Judge Cowley's "Historical Sketch" traces 
the fortunes of the County from its incorpora- 
tion in 1643, when it extended to the "South 
Sea," and included large portions of New 
Hampshire and Connecticut, as well as of 
Massachusetts, until since the adoption of the 
Federal Constitution, and the close of Shays' 
Rebellion. It is the first history of Middlesex 
County ever printed. 

In it Judge Cowley has incorporated the 
principal and most valuable portions of both of 
General Gookin"s works : namely, his Historical 
Collections relating to the New England Indi- 
ans generally ; and his History of the Christ- 
ian Indians during King Philip's War. Both 
of these narratives are dificult to obtain. We 
have known as much as ten dollars to be paid for 



8 PREFACE. 

the volume containing the former of these works, 
and even a greater price for the volume con- 
taining the latter. One might watch the 
chances of the booksellers ] for many years to 
obtain, for twenty dollars, the narratives here 
supplied, in all their most desirable parts, for a 
single dollar. 

In addition to all this Judge Cowley has en- 
riched his "Sketch" with much new matter, and 
with notes and references to original authorities. 

Mr. Johnson's labors in the Committee on 
County Expenditures have enabled him to pre- 
sent a valuable summary of the frauds and 
abuses heretofore practiced in County affairs, 
and to show how they have been or may be 
reformed. 

Since Mr. Johnson's article was prepared, 
the Legislative Committee on Prisons have 
made a report on the Middlesex House of Cor- 
rection, from which it appears that that 
establishment now actually yields a small 
income to the County, instead of being the 
public burden it was before the investigations of 
1874; although Charles J. Adams has been per- 
mitted to remain in his place as Master. 

This Committee say : — "In 1877 the receipt 
from the sale of brushes was $24,000 ; and for 
board of prisoners, sale of old materials, offal, &c, 



PREFACE. 9 

$4,893.84 ; total, $28,893.84. The total expen- 
ses of Jail and House of Correction were $28,- 
521.70, leaving a balance of receipts over 
expenditures of $372,14." 

Others besides Mr. Johnson would like to 
be informed why an establishment that can 
be so conducted as to yield an income to 
the County in the worst of times, could not 
yield an income, but was actually run at a heavy 
loss, when the times were the best ever known 
in the land. 

It will be seen that the income above re- 
ported, when divided by the number of inmates 
(285) amounts to $1.30 apiece. Mr. Johnson 
thinks this much smaller than it should be. 
Ought not an able bodied prisoner to earn more 
than $1.30 in a year, besides his board and 
clothes ? Mr. Johnson says, he ought. 

We had hoped to add another valuable 
contribution, on the "Old Families of Mid- 
dlesex," from the practiced pen of the late John 
Wingate Thornton, author of "Roger Conan't 
and Cape Ann," and other works of acknowl- 
edged merit, and himself a noble scion of two 
of those families. But his recent lamented 
death, before preparing his article, compels us 
to omit those pages (111-116,) in which we 



io PREFACE. 

hoped to see the "Old Families of Middlesex" 
"live again." 

County publications, in a great number 
and variety, are noticed by various writers, in a 
manner at once critical and interesting. 

Lists of County officers have been com- 
piled with an amount of labor of which the 
average reader can form no adequate idea. 

Lowell, July 4th, 1878. 

Penhallow Printing Company. 



CONTENTS. 

NTY. - 13,-^9 



Historical Sketch of the County. - 13 -^9 

Financial Reforms in the County. - Si 

Reconstruction of the County. - - 93 

Civil List of the County. - - - 103 

Advertisements. - - ----- 117 

New County Publications. - - - - 123 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 



OF THE 



COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 



The year 1643 was signalized by two im- 
portant events in the history of Massachusetts : 
— the formation of the famous confederacy 
between this Colony and the three other Colo- 
nies of New England ; and the creation of the 
four Counties of Middlesex, Essex, Norfolk and 
Suffolk. The tide of immigration from England 
to Massachusetts, which ran without interruption 
from 1630 to 1640, had substantially ceased to 
flow. About four thousand English families, 
including more than twenty thousand persons, 
were then domiciled on the rugged shores of 
New England. Since then, "more persons have 
removed out of New England to other parts of 
the world than have come from other parts to 



14 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

it."* The white population of the "Bay 
Colony," as Massachusetts was called, was then 
about fifteen thousand souls. 

The chief cause of this discontinuance of 
immigration was undoutedly the English Civil 
War. So long as the contest between Charles 
the First and the champions of popular govern- 
ment was a war of words merely, every ship that 
entered Massachusetts Bay brought her quota 
of adventurous immigrants. But as soon as 
that struggle was transferred from the halls of 
Westminster and Oxford to the battle-fields of 
Newbury and Chalgrove, Marston Moor and 
Edgehill, no Englishman that had a heart could 
think of leaving the shores of his native land. 
Some of those who had settled in Massachusetts, 
returned to England to stay — such as the Rev. 
Hugh Peters and Sir Henry Vane — and bore an 
honorable part in the war which saved the Eng- 
lish Constitution from the fate which overthrew 
all the other Constitutions of Europe. Vane 
ana Peters both perished on the scaffold. 

It is interesting to notice with what intense 
anxiety the first settlers of Middlesex and the 
other Colonial Counties watched from afar that 

*So wrote Governor Hutchinson in his History of 
Massachusetts, vol. 1, p. 91; and from his time to ours 
the same fact has continued 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 15 

sanguinary struggle. In turning over the second, 
third and fourth volumes of Massachusetts 
Colony Records, I find that between July 21, 
1642, and May 31, 1660, no less than twenty 
separate days were set apart for fasting humilia- 
tion and prayer, in which "the distractions of 
our native land," "the present sad and deplora- 
ble condition of our dear native country," etc., 
were specially remembered. So, when the 
Parliamentary forces won any signal victory 
over those of the King, days were set apart in 
Massachusetts for thanksgiving and praise. 

The act creating the County of Middlesex 
was passed by the General Court on the tenth 
day of May, 1643, and is a model, of brevity and 
comprehensiveness. It simply says, "The whole 
plantation in this jurisdiction is divided into 
four shires ;" names them, as Middlesex, Essex, 
Norfolk and Suffolk ; and then gives the names 
of the towns which they are to include. 

The same page which contains this record, 
contains one of those orders to which I just 
now referred, for "a day of publique humiliation 
for the sad condition of our native country."* 

Thus we see that while they were passing 
the most important measures of Colonial legis- 
lation, and creating Counties that might endure 

*Massachusetts Colon}- Records, vol. 2, p. 33. 



1 6 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

as long as the Merrimack and the Blackstone 
flow singing to the sea, their hearts untravelled 
fondly turned to the land where Cromwell's Iron- 
sides were hurling back Prince Rupert's Cavalry, 
and filling Europe with the fame of soldiers who 
trusted in God and kept their powder dry. 

The institutions and social condition of 
the Colonies had, as Dr. Palfrey remarks, taken 
a definite shape ; and at this point, accordingly, 
he pauses, and pictures to us in vivid colors 
that primitive system of society which has influ- 
enced so largely the character and fortunes of 
all the later generations of New England life. :> 

The General Court, then composed of 
Assistants and Deputies as now it is composed 
of Senators and Representatives, had assumed 
the fixed character which it still retains. 
Originally it consisted of the Assistants and all 
Freemen of the Colony ; but it had then come 
to be a representative body, as now. At first 
all the members sat in one chamber, like the 
Parliament of Scotland, the City Council of 
London, and the Legislative Assembly of 
France ; but in 1643 it had assumed the fixed 
form of a two-chamber body, as now. 

The theory on which the government was 
established, was not Democratic, but Thcocra- 
* Palfrey's History of New England, vol. 2, chap. 1. 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 17 

tic* The suffrage was limited to church 
members ; and the voters, or freemen, were "not 
more than one-fifth part of the grown men."f 
Thus was the suffrage restricted in 163 1 ; and 
in 1660, when some of the inhabitants of Mid- 
dlesex brought this subject anew to the atten- 
of the General Court, it was ordered "that no 
man whosoever shall be admitted to the freedom 
of this body politic but such as are members of 
some church of Christ ( *. e. some Congrega- 
tional Church) and in full communion. "% 

The Church, then, was rather the creator 
than the creature of the State. Excommunica- 
tion from the Church meant banishment from 
the Colony. 

How complete was the control of the 
Church over the State and its members may be 
seen from the experiences of Captain John 
Underhill, as recorded by Governor Winthrop : — 

"Capt. Underhill, being struck with horror 
and remorse for his offences, both against the 
church and civil state, could have no rest till he 

*Hence Whittier applauds Samuel Sewall, one of the 
Judges who condemned the witches, and afterwards 
publicly confessed his error in the Old South Church : — 
"Green forever the memory be 
Of the Judge of the old Theocracy." 
fPalfrey's History of New England, vol. 3, p. 135. 
{Massachusetts Colony Kecords, vol. 4, p. 420. 



1 8 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

had obtained a safe conduct to come and give 
satisfaction ; and accordingly, at a lecture at 
Boston, (it being then the court time,) he made 
a public confession both of his living in adultery 
with Faber's wife, (upon suspicion whereof the 
church had -before admonished him,) and at- 
tempting the like with another woman, and also 
the injury he had done to our state, &c. and 
acknowledged the justice of the court in their 
proceeding against him. 

He came at the time of the court of 
assistants ; and upon the lecture day, after ser- 
mon, the pastor called him forth and declared 
the occasion, and then gave him leave to speak : 
and indeed it was a spectacle which caused 
many weeping eyes, though it offered matter of 
much rejoicing to behold the power of the Lord 
Jesus in his own ordinances, when they are 
dispensed in his own way, holding forth the 
authority of his regal sceptre in the simplicity of 
the gospel. He came in his worst clothes 
(being accustomed, to take great pride in his 
bravery and neatness) without a band, in a foul 
linen cap pulled close to his eyes ; and standing 
upon a form, he did, with many deep sighs and 
abundance of tears, lay open his wicked course, 
his adultery, his hypocrisy, his persecution of 
God's people here, and especially his pride (as 
the root of all, which caused God to give him 
over to his other sinful courses) and contempt of 
magistrates. He justified God and the church 
and the court in all that had been inflicted on 
him. He declared what power Satan had of him 
since the casting out of the church ; how his pre- 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 19 

sumptuous laying hold of mercy and pardon, 
before God gave it, did then fail him when 
the terrors of God came upon him, so as he 
could have no rest, nor could see any issue but 
utter dispair, which had put him divers times 
upon resolutions of destroying himself, had not 
the Lord in mercy prevented him, even when 
his sword was ready to have done the execution. 
Many fearful temptations he met with beside, 
and in all these his heart shut up in hardness 
and impenitency as the bondslave of Satan, till 
the Lord, after a long time and great afflictions, 
had broken his heart, and brought him to hum- 
ble himself before him night and day with 
prayers and tears till his strength was wasted ; 
and indeed he appeared as a man worn out with 
sorrow, and yet he could find no peace, therefore 
he was now come to seek it in this ordinance of 
God. He spake well, save that his blubbering 
&c. interrupted him, and all along he discovered 
a broken and melting heart, and gave good ex- 
hortations to take heed of such vanities and 
beginnings of evil as had occasioned his fall ; 
and in the end he earnestly and humbly besought 
the church to have compassion of him, and to 
deliver him out of the hands of Satan. So 
accordingly he was received into the church 
again ; and after he came into the court, (for 
the general court began soon after) and made 
confession of his sin against them &c. and de- 
sired pardon, which the court freely granted him 
so far as concerned their private judgment. 
But for his adultery they could not pardon that 
for example sake, nor would restore him tO' 



20 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

freedom, though they released his banishment, 
and declared the former law against adultery to 
be of no force ; so as there was no law now to 
touch his life, for the new law against adultery 
was made since his fact committed. He con- 
fessed also in the congregation that though he 
was very familiar with that woman, and had 
gained her affection &c. yet she withstood 
his solicitations six months (which he thought no 
woman could have resisted) before he could 
overcome her chastity, but being once overcome, 
she was wholly at his will. And to make his 
peace the more sound, he went to her husband 
(being a cooper) and fell upon his knees before 
him in the presence of some of the elders and 
others, and confessed the wrong he had done 
him, and besought him to forgive him, which he 
did very freely, and in testimony thereof he 
sent the captain's wife a token.*" 

To such discipline did this old Puritan cap- 
tain submit, who had served in the English army 
in the Netherlands, in Spain, and in Ireland, 
and who had also borne a distinguished part in 
the Fequot War in Connecticut. 

Did not Hawthorne, in this affair of Under- 
bill, find the germ of one of the most dramatic 
incidents in his "Scarlet Letter ?" Not in the 



♦Winthrop's History of New England, vol. 1, p. 326, 
vol. 2, pp. 18-16. Sec also Famous Divorces of All Ages, 
bj Charles Cowley, of the Middlesex Bur. pp. 86-89. Pub- 
lished by the Penhallow Printing Company, Lowell. 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 21 

the Rev. John Cotton, but in Captain John 
Underhill, must we look, as I think, for the ori- 
ginal of the Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale. 

However this may be, Captain Underhill 
afterwards removed to the Dutch settlement on 
Long Island. There he "sobered down into a 
respectable Burgomaster," and died in peace 
at the last. 

The County of Middlesex, when first estab- 
lished, contained eight towns — Charlestown, 
Cambridge, Watertown, Sudbury, Concord, 
VVoburn, Medford and Reading. Each of these 
towns then covered a much larger area of ter- 
ritory than now ; and the magistrates of Mid- 
dlesex exercised jurisdiction as occasion required 
as far North as the White Mountains, and as 
far West as the Connecticut River. 

Many will learn with surprise that so much 
of Lowell as lies on the right bank of the 
Merrimack, was once a part of Cambridge, but 
such is the fact. Ancient Cambridge included 
all the lands between the Charles and the Shaw- 
shine — between the Shawshine and the Concord 
— and between the Concord and the Merrimack. 

Commissioners, appointed by the General 
Court, in 1639, explored the Merrimack River 
as far North as where Franklin now stands ; and 
Darby Field, an adventurous settler from the 



22 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

North of Ireland, made the first ascent of the 
White Mountains in 1642. 

The first and by far the most important 
institutions in the new jurisdictions were the 
County Courts. These were held at first by 
the Assistants, so called, who combined the 
functions now performed by the Executive 
Council and the Senate, with the powers of 
Judges of the higher Courts, and the County 
Commissioners. But it was afterwards provided 
that they should be held by the Assistants who 
lived in the County, or any others "that would 
attend, together with such other persons as the 
freemen of the County, four times a year, should 
nominate, and the General Court approve of, so 
as to make five in all, any three to hold a Court. 
They had the power to determine all civil causes 
and all criminal, the penalty not extending to 
life, member, or banishment. Grand and petit 
juries were summoned to attend them. Appeals 
from them lay to the Court of Assistants, and 
from them to the General Court." 

♦Hutchinson's History of Mass., vol. 1, p. 897; Mass. 
Col. Rec, vol. 3, p. 325. Dr. Palfrey says "these Courts 
had jurisdiction incases of Divorce." History of New 
England, vol 2, p. 17. Hut I find no record of any decree 
of divorce either from bed and board *r fiium tliw liutul 
*e f t na tri nn i ny > under the Colony Charter. The Court 
of Assistants however had the power of divorce. 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 23 

The County Courts were held four times a 
year — twice in Charlestown and twice in Cam- 
bridge. Among their many duties were those 
of granting licences tc inn-keepers and common 
victualers, and of assessing negligent towns 
for the maintenence of ministers. 

When it was proposed, some years ago, to 
amend the Constitution so as to make the 
Judges of our Courts elective by the people, 
many cried against it as a most dangerous in- 
novation. But the fact is, that the County 
Courts of Massachusetts were filled by popular 
election from the early days of the Colonial 
Charter until that Charter was vacated by a 
decree in Chancery in England, June 18, 1684. 
But if other states have followed the example of 
Massachusetts, by introducing elective Judges, 
it is to be hoped that they will also follow her 
example by adopting some better mode of filling 
the bench of Justice than the chance-medley 
of the caucus. 

Middlesex County contained portions of 
two of the five leagues of Indians, whom De 
Monts found in New England in 1604. The 
valley of the Merrimack and its tributaries was 
sparsely peopled by the Pawtuckets or.Penna- 
cooks, under Passaconaway. The Southern por- 
tion of the County was occupied by the 



24 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

Massachusetts tribe, which included the Nip- 
mucks of the West as far as Connecticut. 

One of the first acts of the General Court 
touching the Counties, was an order, passed 
November 13, 1644, "that the County Courts in 
this jurisdiction shall take care that the Indians 
residing in the several shires shall be civilized, 
and they shall have power to take order from 
time to time to have them instructed in the 
knowledge and worship of God." 

On the twenty-ninth of May, 1644, Passa- 
conaway appeared before the General Court at 
Boston, and formally submitted to the Colonial 
authorities.! The terms of the act of sub- 
mission, to which, at different times, the various 
Indian chiefs of the Colony affixed their marks, 
were as follows : — "We have and by these 
presents do, voluntarily and without any con- 
straint or persuasion, but of our own free 
motion, put ourselves, our subjects, lands and 
estates under the government and jurisdiction 
of the Massachusetts, to be governed and pro- 

*See Memories of the Indians and Pioneers of the Re- 
gion of Lowell, by Charles Cowley. 

■fThe date of this event is differently stated in Massa- 
chusetts Archives, vol. 30 ,p. 8, and in Winthrop's Histo- 
ry of New England, vol. 2, pp. lGfi, 214. But I follow 
Massachusetts Colony Records, vol. 3, p. 7:i. 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 25 

tected by them, according to their just laws and 
orders, so far as we shall be made capable of 
understanding them : and we do promise for 
ourselves and our subjects, and all our posterity 
to be true and faithful to the said government, 
and aiding to the maintenance thereof to our 
best ability, and from time to time to give 
speedy notice of any conspiracy, attempt, or 
evil intention of any which we shall know or 
hear of against the same : and we do promise 
to be willing, from time to time, to be instructed 
in the knowledge and worship of God." 

In a note to Governor Winthrop's History, 
Mr. Savage says : — "We may rejoice in the 
benevolence, which attempted the civilization 
and conversion to Christianity of these Indians, 
and certainly must honour the government, 
whose liberal treaty with their confederates is so 
diverse from the usual terms of stipulation with 
the natives ; but it may be feared, that there 
was too much human policy at work in obtain- 
ing their subjection." 

The County of Middlesex was but three 
years old when the Rev. John Eliot commenced 
those Christ-like labors among the ruins of the 
red men, which have won for him the name of 
the Apostle to the Indians. It has often been 
stated that he began this missionary work at 



26 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

Newton on the twenty-eighth of October 1646; 
but others date it from a visit, six weeks earlier, 
to the wigwam of the sachem, Cutshamekirt", at 
Dorchester Mill, now, I believe, in Milton. As 
early as 1647, Eliot reported the work of civil- 
izing the Indians, (which he regarded as in- 
separable from the work of converting them to 
Christianity,) as successfully begun at Newton, 
Concord and Lowell. 

On the twenty-sixth day of May, 1647, the 
General Court established monthly courts in 
those villages which were visited by Eliot or the 
other Indian missionaries ; and the chiefs were 
constituted judges, for the trial of petty causes, 
both civil and criminal ; their powers being sub- 
stantially the same as those of justices of the 
peace. An Indian constabulary was also estab- 
lished, to serve warrants and summonses, and 
execute the orders and judgments of these 
Indian courts. Once in three months, one of 
the magistrates of the Colony and the Indian 
chiefs held a County Court for the Indians.* 

In 1656, Daniel Gookin, one of the Assist- 
ants, was appointed Superintendent of all those 
Indians who had submitted to the English 
jurisdiction. This office, filled for many years 
by Gookin, and by others, was continued until 
the number of Massachusetts Indians had 
dwindled into insignificance. 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 27 

Middlesex County having been one of the 
principal theatres of these attempts to civilize 
the Indians, it is proper to introduce here the 
following portions of the seventh chapter of 
Gookin's Historical Collections of the Indians, 
which, though printed in 1792, have had but 
little circulation among the great body of the 
people. General Gookin wrote in 1674, when 
the work of Eliot and himself had attained all 
the success which was vouchsafed to it. There 
were then under Eliot's supervision fourteen 
"praying Indian towns," including eleven hun- 
dred souls, and two Indian churches, as General 
Gookin's narrative will now show. It will be 
seen that the style of this Puritan Saint was 
one of peculiar felicity, reminding the reader of 
the grace with which Blackstone, nearly a cen- 
utry later, wrote his celebrated Commentaries. 

§. 1. The first town of praying Indians in 
Massachusetts is Natick. The name signifieth a 
place of hills. It lieth upon the Charles Kiver, eigh- 
teen miles south-west from Boston, and ten miles 
north-west from Dedham. It hath twenty-nine fam- 
ilies, which, computing five persons to a family, 
amount to one hundred and forty-five persons. The 
town contains about six thousand acres. The soil is 
good and well watered, and produceth plenty of 
grain and fruit. The land was granted to the Indians, 
at the motion of Mr. Eliot, by the General Court of 



28 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

Massachusetts ; and in the year 1651, a number 
of them combined together, and formed a town, which 
is the place of the greatest name among the Indians,* 
and where their principal courts are held. 

As soon as the Indians had fixed their settlement, 
they applied to Mr. Eliot for a form of civil govern- 
ment ; and he advised them to adopt that which 
Jethro proposed to Moses for the Israelites in the 
wilderness, Exod. xviii. 21. Accordingly, on the 
sixth of August, about one hundred of them met to- 
gether, and chose one ruler of a hundred, two rulers 
of fifties, and ten rulers of tens. After this they 
entered into the following covenant. 

"We are the sons of Adam. We and our fore- 
fathers have a long time been lost in our sins ; but 
now the mercy of the Lord beginneth to find us out 
again. Therefore, the grace of Christ helping us, 
we do give ourselves and our children to God, to be 
his people. He shall rule us in all our affairs, not 
only in our religion and affairs of the church, but 
also in all our works and affairs in this world. God 
shall rule over us. The Lord is our jndge ; the 
Lord is our lawgiver ; the Lord is our king ; he will 
save us. The wisdom which God hath taught us in 
his book, that shall guide us, and direct us in the 
way. Jehovah, teach us wisdom to find out thy 
wisdom in the Scriptures. Let the grace of Christ 
help us, because Christ is the wisdom of God. Send 
thy spirit into our hearts, and let it teach us. Lord, 
take us to be thy people, and let us take thee to be 
our God." 

•Massachusetts Colony Records, vol. 3, p. 246; voL 

4, pp. 112, 334; vol. 5, 227. 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 29 

§. 2. This town consisteth of three long streets ; 
two on the north side of the river; and one, on the 
south ; with house lots to every family. There is a 
handsome large fort, of a round figure, palisaded 
with trees ; and a foot-bridge over the river, in form 
of an arch, the foundation of which is secured with 
stone. There is also one large house built after th Q 
English manner. The lower room is a large hall 
which serves for a meetingdiouse, on the Lord's day, 
and a school-house on the week days. The upper 
room is a kind of wardrobe, where the Indians hang 
up their skins, and other things of value. In a cor- 
ner of this room Mr.^Eliot has an apartment partition- 
ed off, with a bed and bedstead in it.* The nth or 
houses in this town are generally after their old 
mode before described ; though some they have built 
in this and other of the praying villages, after the 
English form. But these being more chargeable to 
build and not so warm, and cannot be removed so 
easily as their wigwams, wherein there is not a nail 
used, to avoid annoyance by fleas, and themselves 
being generally artists in building and furnishing 
their own wigwams : for these and like reasons, they 
do incline to keep their old fashioned houses. 

§. 3. In this town was the first church of Indians 
imbodied, in the year of our Lord 16G0. Unto this 

The preceding portion of this chapter was prepared 
by the Committee that edited Gookiu's narrative for the 
Massachusetts Historical Society, to supply the place of a 
lost leaf in the original manuscript. These foot notes 
are mine. 



30 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

church* some pious Indians of other places, hoth men 
and women, are since joined. * * * 

There are many Indians that live among those 
that have subjected to the gospel, that are catechised, 
do attend public worship, read the scriptures, pray in 
their family morning and evening ; but being not 
yet come so far, as to be able or willing to profess 
their faith in Christ, and yield obedience and subjec- 
tion unto him in his cburch, are not admitted to par- 
take in the ordinances of God, proper and peculiar to 
the church of Christ, which is a garden enclosed, as 
the Scripture saith. 

§. 4. The manner practiced by these Indians in 
the worship of God, is thus. Upon the Lord's days, 
fast days, and lecture days, the people assemble to- 
gether at the sound of a drum, when one of their 
teachers, if they have more than one, begins with 
solemn and affectionate prayer. Then, after a short 
pause, either himself or some other thereunto ap- 
pointed, readeth a chapter distinctly out of the old or 
new testament. At the conclusion thereof a psalm, 
or part of a psalm, is appointed, rehearsed, and 
solemnly sung. Then the minister catechises and 
prays before his sermon ; and so preacheth from some 
text of Scripture. Then concludeth with prayer, and 
a psalm, and a blessing pronounced. Sometime, 
instead of reading the chapter, some persons do 
answer some parts of the catechism 

♦Governor Hutchinson says that in 1(>70 there were 
between forty and fifty communicants iu this church. 
History of Massachusetts, vol. 1, page 156, note. 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 31 

la all these acts of worship, (for I have heen often 
present with them,) they demean themselves visibly 
with reverence, attention, modesty and solemnity . 
the menkind sitting by themselves* and the women- 
kind by themselves, according to their age, quality, 
and degree, in a comely manner. And for my own 
part, I have no doubt, but am fully satisfied, accord- 
ing to the judgment of charity, that divers of tbem 
do fear God and are true believers ; but yet I will 
not deny but that there may be some of them hypo- 
crites, that profess religion, and yet are not sound 
hearted. But things that are secret belong to God ; 
and things that are revealed, unto us and our child- 
ren. 

§. 5. Their teachers are generally chosen from 
among themselves, — except some few English 
teachers, — of the most pious and devout men among 
them. If these did not supply, they would generally 
be destitute. * * From this church and town of 
Natick hath issued forth, as from a seminary of 
virtue and piety, divers teachers that are employed 
in several new praying towns ; of which we shall 
hear more, God willing, hereafter. 

In this town they have residing some of their 
principal rulers, the chief whereof is named Waban, 
who is now above seventy years of age. He is a 
person of great prudence and piety : I do not know 
any Indian that excels him. Other rulers there are 
living there, as Nattous and Piam Boohan, and 

*Suck was the ancient Jewish custom. 



32 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

others. These are good men and prudent, but infe- 
rior to the first. The teachers of this town are 
Anthony and John Speen, which are grave and pious 
men. They have two constables belonging to this 
place, chosen yearly ; and there is a marshal-general 
belonging to all the praying Indian towns, called 
Captain Josiah, or Pennahannit. He doth attend 
the chief courts kept here, but he dwells at another 
place, called Nashobah. 

I have been the larger in speaking of this place, 
because it is the chiefest town and eldest church ; and 
what is said of this doth agree to all the rest in 
divers things. 

§. 6. The next town is Pakemit, or Punkapog.* 
The signification of this name is taken from a spring, 
that ariseth out of red earth. This town is situated 
south from Boston, about fourteen miles. There is a 
great mountain, called the Blue Hill, lieth north- 
east from it about two miles : and the town of Ded- 
ham, about three miles north-west from it. This is 
a small town, and hath not above twelve families in 
it ; and so about sixty souls. This is the second 
praying town. The Indians that settled here, re- 

♦Massachusetts Colony Records, vol. 1, p. 8S4. 

Punkapog is now in Stoughtoii. It was the only town 
of Eliot's converts which was not within the jurisdiction 
of this County. From 1G43 to 1793 it formed part of Suf- 
folk County. Since the present County of Norfolk was 
created in 171)3, (the old County of that name lying North 
of the Merrimack having ceased to exist in 1680,) it has 
been In Norfolk County. 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 33 

moved from Neponsit mill. The quantity of land 
belonging to this village, is about six thousand acres ; 
and some of it is fertile, but not generally so good as 
in other towns. Here they worship God, and keep 
the Sabbath, in the same manner as is done at Natick, 
before declared. They have a ruler, a constable, and 
a school-master. Their ruler's name is Ahawton ; 
an old and faithful friend to the English. Their 
teacher is William Ahawton, his son ; an ingenious 
person and pious man, and of good parts. Here was 
a very able teacher, who died about three years since. 
His name was William Awinian. He was a very 
knowing person, and of great ability, and of genteel 
deportment, and spoke very good English. His 
death was a very great rebuke to this place. This 
town hath within this ten years, lost by death several 
honest and able men ; and some have turned apostates, 
and removed from them : which dispensations of God 
have greatly damped the flourishing condition of this 
place. Here it was that Mr. John Eliot, junior, be- 
fore mentioned, preached a lecture once a fortnight, 
for sundry years, until his decease. In this village, 
besides their planting and keeping cattle ynd swire, 
and fishing in good ponds, and upon Neponsit River 
which lieth near them ; they are also advantaged by 
a large cedar swamp ; wherein such as are laborious 
and diligent, do get many a pound, by cutting and 
preparing cedar shingles and clapboards, which sell 
well at Boston and other English towns adjacent. 

§. 7. Hassanamesit is the third town of pray- 
ing Indians. The name signifieth a place of 



34 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

small stones. This place lieth about thirty-eight 
miles from Boston, west-southerly ; and is about two 
miles to the eastward of Nipmuck River;* and near 
unto the old road way to Connecticut. It hath not 
above twelve families ; and so, according to our com- 
putation, about sixty souls ; but is capable to receive 
hundreds, as generally the other villages are, if it 
shall please God to multiply them. The dimensions 
of this town is four miles square ; and so about eight 
thousand acres of land. This village is not inferior 
unto any of the Indian plantations for rich land and 
plenty of meadow, being well tempered and watered. 
It produceth plenty of corn, grain and fruit ; for 
there are several good orchards in this place. It is 
an apt place for keeping of cattle and swine ; in 
which respect this people are the best stored of any 
Indian town of their size. Their ruler is named 
Anaweakin ; a sober and discreet man. Their 
teacher's name is Tackuppa-willin, his brother; a 
pious and able man, and apt to teach. Their aged 
father, whose name I remember not, is a grave and 
sober christian, and deacon of the church. They 
have a brother that lives in the town, called James, 
that was bred among the English, and employed as a 
press-man in printing the Indian Bible; who can 
read well, and, as I take it, write also. The father, 
mother, brothers, and their wives, are all reputed 
pious persons, and the principal studs of the town. 
Here they have a meeting-house for the worship of 

♦Bkickstone River. 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 35 

God after the English fashion of building, and two 
or three other houses after the same mode ; hut they 
fancy not greatly to live in them. Their way of liv- 
ing is by husbandry, and keeping cattle and swine; 
wherein they do as well, or rather better, than any 
other Indians, but yet are very far short of the 
English both in diligence and providence. In this 
town was the second Indian church gathered, about 
three years since, in summer, 1671. The pastor of 
this church, is Tackuppa-willin ; the ruling elder, 
Piambow ; the deacon, father to the pastor. There 
are in full communion in this church, and living in 
the town, about sixteen men and women, and about 
thirty baptized persons ; but there are several others, 
members of the church, that live in other places. 
This is a hopeful plantation. The Lord give his 
blessing to it. The way of their worship and civil 
order, is here as in other Indian towns before 
mentioned.* 

§. 8. Okommakamesit.f alias Marlborough, is sit- 
uated about twelve miles north-north-east from Has- 
sanamesit, about thirty miles from Boston westerly. 
This village contains about ten families, and conse- 

*Massachusetts Colony Records, vol. 4, pp. 192, 34S. 
The town of Grafton includes Hassanamesit. In 1731. 
this and much other territory of ancient Middlesex was 
set off to form the County of Worcester. It was incor- 
porated as a town in 1735. 

fMassachusetts Colony Records, vol. 4, pp. 192, 317, 
348, 363. The town of Hudson embraces part of this 
territory. 



36 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

quently about fifty souls. The quantity of land apper- 
taining to it is six thousand acres. It is much of it 
good land, and yieldeth plenty of corn, being well 
husbanded. It is sufficiently stored with meadow, and 
is well wooded and watered. It hath several good 
orchards upon it, planted by the Indians : and is in 
itself a very good plantation. This town doth join 
so near to the English of Marlborough, that it was 
spoken of David in type, and our Lord Jesus Christ, 
the antitype, Under his shadow ye shall rejoice : but 
the Indians here do not much rejoice under the 
English men's shadow ; who do so overtop them in 
their number of people, stocks of cattle, &c that the 
Indians do not greatly flourish, or delight in their 
station at present. Their ruler here was Onomog, 
who is lately deceased, about two months since ; which 
is a great blow to that place. He was a pious and 
discreet man, and the very soul, as it were, of that 
place. Their teacher's name is [Solomon*]. Here 
they observe the same decorum for religion and civil 
order, as is done in other towns. They have a con- 
stable and other officers, as the rest have. The Lord 
sanctify the present affliction they are under by rea- 
son of their bereavements ; and raise up others, and 
give them grace to promote religion and good order 
among them. 

§. 9. Wamesitf is the fifth praying town; and 

♦Hutchinson says his name was Solomon. 

fMassachusetts Colony Records, vol. :>, p. 301, vol. 
•1, part L, pp. 268, 106, 131; part 2. pp. 16. 431. This 
territory is now a part of Lowell. 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 37 

is situated upon the Merrimack River, being a neck 
of land, where Concord River falleth into Merrimack 
River. It is about twenty miles from Boston, north- 
north-west, and within five miles of Billerica, and as 
much from (jhelmsford : so that it hath Concord 
River upon the west-north-west ; and Merrimack 
River, upon the north-north-east. It hath about 
fifteen families ; and consequently, as we compute, 
about seventy-five souls. The quantity of land be- 
longing to it is about twenty-five hundred acres. 
The land is fertile, and yieldeth plenty of corn. It 
is excellently accommodated with a fishing place ; and 
there is taken a variety of fish in their seasons, as 
salmon, shads, lamprey eels, sturgeon, bass and divers 
others. There is a great confluence of Indians, that 
usually resort to this place in the fishing seasons. 
Of these strange Indians divers are vicious and 
wicked men and women ; which Satan makes use of 
to obstruct the prosperity of religion here. The ruler 
of this people is called Numphow. He is one of the 
blood of their chief sachems. Their teacher is called 
Samuel ; son to the ruler, a young man of good parts, 
and can speak, read, and write, English and Indian 
competently. He is one of those that were bred 
up at school, at the charge of the Corporation for the 
Indians. These Indians, if they were diligent and 
industrious, — to which they have been frequently 
excited, — might get much by their fish, especially 
fresh salmon, which are of esteem and good price at 
Boston in the season ; and the Indians being stored 
with horses of a low price, might furnish the market 



38 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

fully, being at so small a distance. And divers other 
sort of fish they might salt or pickle, as sturgeon 
and bass ; which would be much to their profit. But 
notwithstanding divers arguments used to persuade 
them, and some orders made to encourage them ; yet 
their idleness and improvidence doth hitherto prevail. 

At this place, once a year, at the beginning of 
May, the English magistrate [Gookin,] keeps his 
court, accompanied with Mr. Eliot, the minister; who 
at this time takes his opportunity to preach, not only 
to the inhabitants, but to as many of the strange 
Indians, that can be persuaded to hear him ; of which 
sort, usually in times of peace, there are considerable 
numbers at that season. And this place being an 
ancient and capital seat of Indians, they come to 
fish ; and this good man takes this opportunity to 
spread the net of the gospel, to fish for their souls. 
Here it may not be impertinent to give you the rela- 
tion following. 

May 5th, 1674, according to our usual custom, Mr. 
Eliot and myself took our journey to Wamesit or 
Pawtucket ;* and »rriving there thai evening, Mr. 

♦Governor Hutchinson says, "Pawtucket, at the falls 
in Merrimack River, was the place of another set of pray- 
ing Indians. The Pennacook Indians had come down 
the river, and built a fort at Pawtucket, and were great 
opposers, and obstinately refused to pray to God; but 
being concerned in the expedition against the Mohawks, 
they were mosl of them cul off, and since that lime the 
Pawtuket Indians were, at least several of them, become 

praying Indians, and Jethro was sent to preach Christ 

to them." Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, vol. l, 
p. 157, note. 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 39 

Eliot preached to as many of them as could be got to- 
gether out of Mat. xxii. 1-14. — the parable of the 
marriage of the king's son. We met at the wigwam 
of one called Wannalancet, about two miles from the 
town, near Pawtucket falls, and bordering upon the 
Merrimack river.* This person, Wannalancet, is the 
eldest son of old Passaconaway, the chiefest sachem of 
Pawtucket. He is a sober and grave person, 
and of years, between fifty and sixty. He hath been 
always loving and friendly to the English. Many 
endeavors have been used several years to gain this 
sachem to embrace the christian religion ; but he hath 
stood off from time to time, and not yielded up him- 
self personally, though for four years past he hath 
been willing to hear the word of God preached, and 
to keep the Sabbath. — -A great reason that hath kept 
him off, I conceive, hath been the indisposition and 
averseness of sundry of his chief men and relations to 
pray to God ; which he foresaw would desert him, in 
case he turned a christian. But at this time, May 
6th, 1674, it pleased God so to influence and over- 
come his heart, that it being proposed to him to give 
his answer concerning praying to God, after some 
deliberation and serious pause, he stood up and made 
a speech to this effect. 

Sirs, you have been pleased for four years last past, 
in your abundant love, to apply yourselves partic- 
ularly unto me and my people, to exhort, prtss, and 
persuade us to pray to God. I am very thankful to 

*Near the site of the stately mansion of Frederick 
Ayer. 



4 o HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

you for your pains. I must acknowledge, said he, I 
have, all my days, used to pass in an old canoe (al- 
luding to his frequent custom to pass in a canoe upon 
the river) and now you exhort me to change and 
leave my old canoe, and embark in a new canoe, to 
which I have hitherto been unwilling: but now I 
yield up myself to your advice, and enter into a new 
canoe, and do engage to pray to God hereafter. 

This his professed subjection was well pleasing to 
all that were present, of which there some English 
persons of quality ; as Mr. Richard Daniel, a gentle- 
man that lived in Billerica, about six miles off: and 
Lieutenant Henchman, a neighbor at Chelmsford ; 
besides brother Eliot and myself, with sundry others, 
English and Indians. Mr. Daniel before named 
desired brother Eliot to tell this sachem from him, 
that it maybe, while he went in his old canoe, he 
passed in a quiet stream : but the end thereof was 
death and destruction to soul and body: But now he 
went into a new canoe, perhaps he would meet with 
storms and trials ; but yec he should be encouraged 
to persevere, for the end of his voyage would be 
everlasting rest. Moreover he and his people were 
exhorted by brother Eliot and myself, to go on and 
sanctify the sabbath, to hear the word, and use the 
means that God hath appointed, and encourage their 
hearts in the Lord their God. Since that time, 1 
hear this sachem doth persevere, and is a constant 
and diligent hearer of God's word, and sanetirteth 
the sabbath, though he doth travel to "Wamesit meet- 
ing every sabbath, which is above two miles ; and 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 41 

though sundry of his people have deserted him, since 
he subjected to the gospel, yet he continues and 
persists.* 

In this town they observe the same civil and re- 
ligious orders, as in other towns, and have a coustable 
and other officers. 

This people of Wamesit suffered more in the late 
war with the Mohawks, than any other praying 
town of Indians : for divers of their people were slain ; 
others, wounded ; and some, carried into captivity : 
which providence hath much hindered the prosperous 
estate of this place. t 

§. 10. NashobahJ is the sixth praying Indian 
town. This village is situated in a manner in the 
centre between Chelmsford, Lancaster, Groton, and 
Concord. It lieth from Boston about twenty-five 
miles, west-north-west. The inhabitants are about 
ten families, and consequently about fifty souls. The 
dimensions of this village is four miles square. The 
land is fertile, and well stored with meadows and 
woods. It hath good ponds for fish adjoining it. 

*The beautiful Eliot Church stands very near the site 
of the wigwam in which Wannalaucet worshiped two 
hundred years ago. 

fThe war with the Mohawks, or Maquas, who lived 
near the lakes of Northern New York, began in 16G3, and 
lasted till 1G71, and was very destructive to tne Indian 
tribes of Middlesex. 

^Massachusetts Colony Records, vol. 4, pp. 192, 348. 
This territory is now partly in Concord and partly iu 
Littleton. 



42 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

The people live here, as in other Indian villages, upon 
planting corn, fishing, hunting, and sometimes labor- 
ing with the English. Their ruler of late years was 
John Ahatawance, a pious man. Since his decease, 
Pennahannit is the chief. Their teacher is named 
John Thomas, a sober and pious man. His fathei 
was murthered by the Maquas in a secret manner, as 
he was fishing for eels at his wear, some years since, 
during the war. He was a pious and useful person ; 
and that place sustained a great loss in him. In this 
village, as well as in other old Indian plantations, 
they have orchards of apples, whereof they make 
cider ; which some of them have not the wisdom and 
grace to use for their comfort, but, are prone to abuse 
unto drunkenness. And although the laws be strict 
to suppress this sin, and some of their own rulers are 
very careful and zealous in the execution of them ; 
yet such is the madness and folly of man naturally, 
that lie doth eagerly pursue after that which tendeth 
to his own destruction. I have often seriously con- 
sidered what course to take, to restrain this beastly 
sin of drunkenness among them; but hitherto cannot 
reach it. For if it were possible, as it is not, to pre- 
vent the English selling strong drink; yet they hav- 
ing a native liberty to plant orchards and sow grain 
as barley and the like, of which they may and do 
make strong drink and doth inebriate them : so that 
nothing can overcome and conquer this exorbitancy, 
but the sovereign grace of God in Christ; which is 
in the only antidote to prevent and mortify the poison 
of sin. 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 43 

Near unto this town is a pond, wherein at some 
seasons there is a strange rumbling noise, as the In- 
dians affirm ; the reason thereof is not yet known. 
Some have conceived the hills adjacent are hollow, 
wherein the wind being pent, is the cause of this 
rumbling, as in earthquakes. 

At this place they attend civil and religious order, 
as in the other praying towns : and they have a con- 
stable and other officers. 

This town was deserted during the Maquas' war, 
but is now repeopled, and in a hopeful way to pros- 
per. 

§. 11. Magunkaquog* is the seventh town where 
praying Indians inhabit. The signification of the 
place's name is a place of great trees. It is situated 
partly within the bounds of Natick, and partly upon 
the land granted by the country. It lieth west 
southerly from Boston, about twenty-four miles, near 
the midway between Natick and Hassanamesitt. 
The number of its inhabitants are about eleven fam- 
ilies, and about fifty-five souls. There are, men 
and women, eight members of the church at Natick, 
and about fifteen baptized persons. The quantity of 
of land belonging to it is about three thousand acres. 

*The town of Ashland now embraces this territory, 
which also bore the name of Pennahannit. Mrs. Stowe, 
in "Old Town Folks", has improved the name into Ma- 
gunco. Sir Charles Henry Frankland once lived a 
gunco. See his Life, by the Rev. Elias Nason. Ashland 
was incorporated in 1746, having previously formed part 
of Hopkinton. 



44 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

The Indians plant upon a great hill, which is very 
fertile. These people worship God, and keep the 
sabbath, and observe civil order, as do the other towns. 
They have a constable and other officers. Their 
ruler's name is Pomhaman ; a sober and active man, 
and pious. Their teacher is named Job ; a person 
well accepted for piety and ability among them. 
This town was the last setting of the old towns. 
They have plenty of corn, and keep cattle, horses, and 
wine, for which the place is well accommodated. 

Having given the foregoing account of what 
he calls "the seven old praying towns," General 
Gookin proceeds to mention what he calls "the 
seven new praying towns," among the Nipmuck 
Indians. But as all these lay outside of the 
present limits of Middlesex, and had but a brief 
life at the best, they are omitted here.* The 
whole number of praying Indians in these four- 
teen towns was eleven hundred. 

For many years the praying Indians were 
in a situation strikingly resembling that of the 
blacks of our times. The Colonists entertained 
towards them the same prejudices that have 
been entertained towards our Frcedmen. Dur- 
ing the first months of King Phillip's War, the 
Colonial authorities felt the same reluctance to 
accept the praying Indians as soldiers, that was 
felt in 1 86 1 towards the blacks. But several 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 45 

companies of these praying Indians were after- 
wards formed, which rendered very important 
services in bringing that conflict to a successful 
termination. "Military necessity, "strengthened 
by the advice of Eliot and Gookin, led to the 
reception of these Indian soldiers, just as the 
same necessity led President Lincoln to the 
Emancipation Proclamation and the enlistment 
of colored troops. Thus does History repeat 
itself. Middlesex County, containing so many 
praying Indians, and so many frontier towns 
which suffered from the allies of Phillip, nat- 
urally took a leading part in bringing these 
Christian Indian soldiers into the field. 

The situation of the praying towns of 
Middlesex during Phillip's War was such that, 
as Gookin declares, "the Indians in them might 
have been improved as a wall of defence about 
the greatest part of the Colony ;" — for Wamesit 
bordered upon the Merrimack River, and the 
six other villages lay in Littleton, Marlborough, 
Grafton, Ashland, Natick and Stoughton, the 
distance from one to another being only twelve 
or fourteen miles. 

Gookin further observes that, "had the sug- 
gestions and importunate solicitations of some 
persons, [particularly Eliot and himself,] who 
had knowledge and experience of the fidelity 



46 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

and integrity of the praying Indians, been 
attended and practiced in the beginning of the 
war, many and great mischiefs might have been 
(according to reason) prevented ; for most of 
the praying towns, in the beginning of the war, 
had put themselves into a posture of defence, 
and had made forts for their security against the 
common enemy ; and it was suggested and pro- 
posed to the authority of the country, that some 
Englishmen, about one third part, might have 
been joined with those Christian Indians in each 
fort, which the praying Indians greatly desired, 
that thereby their fidelity might have been better 
demonstrated, and that with the assistance and 
company of some of those English soldiers, they 
might daily scout or range the woods from 
town to town, in their several assigned stations, 
and hereby might have been as a living wall to 
guard the English frontiers, and consequently 
the greatest part of the Jurisdiction, which, with 
the blessing of God, might have prevented the 
desolations and devastations that afterward en- 
sued. This was not only the suggestion of some 
English, but the earnest desire of some of the 
most prudent Christian Indians." 

But notwithstanding many signal services 
rendered to the Colony by praying Indians 
during Phillip's War, the animosity of the com- 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 47 

mon white people against them became so in- 
tense that "the very name of a praying Indian 
was spoken against. " 

Because much mischief was done by the 
partisans and allies of Phillip, and because some 
Indians proved false and perfidious, the masses 
of the Colony treated all the Indians as false and 
perfidious. "Things growing to this height," 
says Gookin, on August 30th, 1675, the Govern- 
or and Council, against their own reason and 
inclination, were put upon a kind of necessity, 
for gratifying the people, to disband all the pray- 
ing Indians, and to make and publish an order 
to confine them to five of their own villages, 
and not to stir above one mile from the centre 
of such place, upon peril of their lives." The 
five villages thus designated were the seven old 
praying towns already described, except those of 
Marlborough and Magunkog. 

The fortified Indian village at Marlborough, 
which might have been the most serviceable to 
the whites of all the praying towns, was the first 
to be disrupted, and that, too, by the military 

*See Gookin's Historical Account of the Doings and 
Sufferings of the Christian Indians in New. England in 
the years 1675, 1676, 1677, in the second volume of the 
Collections of the American Antiquarian Society, p. 436. 
This volume being now a scarce one, liberal extracts 
from it will be made in this portion of my narrative. 



48 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

authorities of the Colony, who should have seen 
most clearly the importance of maintaining such 
a frontier post.* 

"By this order the poor Christian Indians 
were reduced to great sufferings, being hindered 
from hunting and looking after their cattle, 
swine, and getting in their corn, or laboring 
among the English to get clothes, and many 
other ways incommoded ; also, were daily ex- 
posed to be slain or imprisoned, if at any time 
they were found without their limits. And 
there wanted not some English (ill willing to 
them,) and took occasion to seize upon them, 
and take away their guns, and detain them to 
this day, and to bring them to prison." 

"Upon the 19th day of October, 1675, the 
Court passed an order to send troopers t'o fetch 
down all the Wamesit and Pakemit Indians ; 
this was suddenly done, and, to be feared, in a 
hurry of temptation. The reason of this sud- 
den motion, as 1 was informed, was a report 
brought to the Court that a haystack, belonging 
to Lieut. James Richardson of Chelmsford, was 
set on fire and burnt the day before. This fact 
was charged upon some of the Indians of 

*See Gookin, in American Antiquarian Society's 
Collections, 2nd volume, pp. 455-402. See, also Hudson's 
History of Marlborough. 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 49 

Wamesit ; but they were innocent, as was after- 
wards cleared ; for some skulking Indians of 
the enemy, that formerly lived near Groton, the 
principal whereof was named Nathaniel, he and 
his party did this and other mischief afterward, 
in burning several houses at Chelmsford. And 
one principal design of the enemy was to begin 
a difference between the English and praying 
Indians living at Wamesit, so that they might 
either be secured by the English or necessitated 
to fly to the enemy. This Nathaniel was after- 
ward taken at Cochecho, and executed at 
Boston, who confessed the same. Moreover, 
Lieut. Richardson, whose hay was burnt, was a 
person well beloved of those Indians at 
Wamesit and their great friend, who did not 
apprehend (as he told me) that any of the 
Wamesit men had burnt his hay. But others 
were of a contrary mind, willing to give credit 
to any report against praying Indians, and ac- 
cordingly, by their solicitations" to the General 
Court, obtained an order for a troop of horse 
(as I said before) to march up to Wamesit, and 
bring down those Indians of Wamesit to 
Boston. This matter might have been 
accomplished as well by two men as forty 
troopers ; for the Indians, upon the least mes- 
sage by the Court, would readily have obeyed." 



50 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

"Upon the 20th of October, 1675, Mr. 
Joseph Cook of Cambridge was sent down (by 
Cornet Oakes, that commanded the troops,) unto 
the Court to inform them that the Wamesit 
Indians were upon the way coming down to 
order, and that they might be there on the mor- 
row ; withall he acquainted the Court that they 
were in number about 'one hundred and forty-five 
men, women and children, whereof about 
thirty-three were men that were all unarmed ; 
that many of them were naked, and several of 
them decrepid with age, sundry infants, and all 
wanted supplies of food, for they were fain to 
leave most they had behind them, except some 
small matters they carried upon their backs. 
Upon this information, the Court took the 
matter into more deliberate consideration, and 
sent back Mr. Cook, with an order to return all 
the women and children, and old men back to 
their place, and to bring down only the able 
men ; which order was put into execution." 

The 15th of November, 167$, there befell 
another great trial to the poor praying Indians 
at Wamesit ; they lived very near to Lieut. 
Thomas Henchman, about two miles from 
Chelmsford, and were under the guard and care 
of Lieut. Richardson, appointed thereunto by 
the Council. The antecedents to this affliction 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 51 

of the Indians was this. A barn belonging to 
Richardson, being full of hay and corn, was set 
on fire and consumed. This was done by some 
skulking rogues of the enemy, that formerly 
lived about Groton, as we afterward understood ; 
but the English at Chelmsford imputed the fact 
to the Wamesit Indians, as they had formerly 
done by the same man's hay, and thereby 
brought much trouble upon the poor Christians. 
Upon this occasion, about fourteen armed men 
from Chelmsford, pretending to scout and look 
out for the enemy, but as I was informed, it was 
moved among them and concluded, that they 
would go to the wigwams of the Wamesit Indians, 
their neighbors, and kill them all ; in pursuance 
whereof they came to the wigwams, and called 
to the poor Indians to come out of doors, which 
most of them readily did, both men, women and 
children, not in the least suspecting the English 
would hurt them. But two of the English being 
loaded with pistol-shot, being not far off, fired 
upon them and wounded five women and child- 
ren, and slew outright a lad of about twelve 
years old, which child's mother was also one of 
the wounded ; she was a widow, her name 
Sarah, a woman of good report for religion. 
She was daughter to a Sagamor, named Sagamor 
John, who was a great friend to the English, 



52 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

who lived and died at the same place. Her two 
husbands, both deceased, were principal Saga- 
mores, one named John Tohatooner, and 
the other Oonamog, both pious men, and rulers 
of the praying Indians, one at Marlborough, the 
other at Nashobah ; her last husband died 
before the war, the first long before." 

Lorgin and Robbins, the perpetrators of 
these murders, "were seized and committed to 
prison, and afterward tried for their lives, but 
were cleared by the jury, to the great grief and 
trouble generally of magistracy and ministry 
and other wise and godly men. The jury pre- 
tended want of clear evidence ; but some feared 
it was rather a mist of temptation and prejudice 
against these poor Indians that darkened their 
way. This cruel murder and fight occasioned 
most of these poor Christian Indians to fly away 
from their wigwams not long after, but carried 
little or nothing with them ; but for fear, rather 
exposed themselves and families to the hardships 
and sufferings of hunger and cold, than to be 
under the harsh dealings of cruel men. But as 
soon as the Council were informed that the 



*When the Rev. Wilkes Allen wrote his History of 
Chelmsford it Is said he incorporated therein an account 
of these atrocities, but the town omitted that account, 

deeming it discreditable to the town. Thus is history 
warped for purposes of local pride. 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 53 

Indians were fled, they sent out orders to Lieut. 
Henchman to send after them, and endeavour to" 
persuade them to return ; but their fears so 
prevailed that they refused to return." 

"About the 5th of February, 1676, a petition 
from the Wamesit Indians (living near Chelms- 
ford) was presented to the Council by the hands 
of Jerathmel Bowers (one of their guardians,) 
the purport whereof was, to desire earnestly 
that they might be moved from the place where 
they were ; declaring they feared to stay, 
because (in all probability) other Indians would 
come and do mischief shortly, and it would be 
imputed to them, and they should suffer for it. 
The Council answered their petition, that they 
would endeavor to remove them speedily. But 
there was greater delay about it than was in- 
tended, by reason of divers other momentous 
occasions intervening. So that, within a few 
days after, these poor Indians of Wamesit find- 
ing themselves in great danger, being threat- 
ened by some of their English neighbors), they 
all ran away into the woods towards Pennakook ; 
only they left behind six or seven aged persons, 
blind and lame, which, not long after, were 
destroyed by some cruel and wicked men, in a 
secret manner, who set fire to the wigwam 
where they kept, and burnt them all. The 



54 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

authors of this fact were not openly known, nor 
so clearly witnessed thereof, as to proceed 
against them by "authority ; but two persons 
were suspected strongly to be the actors, one of 
whom shortly after was slain at Sudbury ; the 
other is yet alive, who, if guilty, which his own 
conscience knows, the Lord give him repentance 
for this so inhuman and barbarous fact, or else 
undoutedly the just God will in due time avenge 
this innocent blood. This fact, when heard of, 
was deservedly abhorred by all sober persons. 
Those poor Christian Indians of Wamesit escap- 
ed clear away, and joined themselves with 
Wannalancet, who had withdrawn himself in the 
beginning of the war. They suffered much in 
their peregrination (as we afterward understood,) 
and sundry of them died by sickness, whereof 
two were principal (and I hope pious) men ; the 
one named Numphow, their chief ruler, and the 
other Mystic George, a teacher of them ; besides 
divers other men, women and children, through 
famine and sickness lost their lives. The rest 
of them, in August 1676, came in with Wan- 
nalancet to Major Waldron, and the rest of the 
committee at Cocheco, who were appointed to 
treat and make peace with such as came in and 
surrendered ; these Wamesit Indians, as well as 
Wannalancet and his people, had not been in 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 55 

hostility against the English, nor had done them 
any wrong, only fled away for fear, and 
for wrongs suffered from some English ; so 
that there lay no just block in the way unto 
their reconciliation, so they were accepted ; 
and yet, afterward, when they were sent to 
Boston, accusations came against some of them 
by English captives escaped, that some of them 
were in arms against the English, (how true 
those charges were God only knows, for 'tis very 
difficult, unless upon long knowledge, to dis- 
tinguish Indians from one another,) however, 
the testimony of the witnesses against them 
was admitted, and some of them condemned to 
death and executed, and others sent to islands 
out of the country ; but some few were pardoned 
and reconciled, whereof Wannalancet and six 
or seven of his men were a part, and the Warn- 
esit Indians, Sam Numphow (hardly escaped,) 
Symon Betokam, Jonathan, George, a brother 
to Sam Numphow, and a very few other men, 
but several women and children, who now lived 
among the rest." 

As with the Nationalists during the late 
Civil War, so with the Colonists during Phillip's 
War, their necessities finally overcame their 
prejudices. As the blacks of our time were 
called in to save the Union, so were the reds of 



56 HISORICAL SKETCH OF 

the Colonial era called in to save the towns of 
Middlesex from the allies of Phillip. It was not 
however, until a body of the enemy lay strongly 
entrenched within twenty miles of Lancaster, 
Groton and Marlborough, and was making daily 
incursions upon the different towns, that the 
Council resolved to arm and send forth a com- 
pany of the praying Indians from Deer Island, 
under the conduct of Samuel Hunting and 
James Richardson, the one made a captain, the 
other his lieutenant for this service. " 

"Upon the 21st of April, 1676, Captain 
Hunting had drawn up and ready furnished his 
company of forty men, at Charlestown. They 
were ordered by the Council at first to march 
up to Merrimack river near Chelmsford, and 
there to settle a garrison near the great fishing- 
places, where it was expected the enemy would 
come at this season to get fish for their neces- 
sary food ; and from this fort to keep their 
scouts abroad daily, to seize the enemy ; and if 
they should be overpowered by greater numbers, 
their garrison and fort was for their retreat, until 
assistance might be sent them." 

*So soon as we condescended to improve our pray- 
ing Indians in the war, from that day forward we always 
prospered ; until God pleased to tear the rod in pieces, 
partly by conquest, partly by tire, sickness and death. 
Apostle Eliot's Journal. 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 57 

"From this time forward, our Christian 
Indian soldiers were constantly employed in 
all expeditions against the enemy, while the war 
lasted ; and after the arrival of the ships from 
England, which was in May, arms were bought 
to furnish the rest of the able men ; and then 
Capt. Hunting's company was made up to the 
number of eighty men ; those did many signal 
services in the summer of 1676. At Wesha- 
kum, and at or near Mendon, at Mount Hope, 
at Wachusett, and several other places, they 
were made use of as scouts before the army, and 
at such time when the army lay still and staid at 
their quarters ; in which scoutings they took 
several captives, and slew many of the enemy, 
and brought their scalps to their commanders." 

In the course of this War, John and Daniel 
Hoare, members of the historic family of 
Middlesex of that name, were so unfortunate as 
to be imprisoned on divers charges of crime in 
connection with the Indians. The following 
are the prayers of a petition sent by them to the 
Colonial authorities in September, 1676. 

1. That all indictments that are presented 
against the said Daniel Hoare, either jointly 
with others or particularly respecting himself, by 
the Grand Jury, we may have copies of and 
testimonies that are sworn to in what may con- 
cern our case. 



58 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

2. That we may have summonses from the 
Secretary, for such witnesses as we may or shall 
stand in need of for our justification in any 
crime that is or may be charged against him to 
the end the cause of both parties may legally 
come before the Judges to the end true and 
equal justice may be done betwixt our Sovereign 
Lord the King and the prisoners respectively. 

3. That all jurors that may be summoned 
or impanneled on the petty jury may be such as 
are allowed by the laws and statutes of the 
realm of England — those in the respective 
County and neighborhood where the fact 
charged is pretended to have been committed. 

4. That he may know what time he may 
be called to answer that so we may summons 
our witnesses accordingly — there being no time 
specified in the mittimus. 

5. That your prisoner may have liberty to 
go and attend on the solemn worship of the Lord 
our God in Boston, both on the Lord's Days and 
lecture days, while the Lord gives opportunity. 

The Hoar family has furnished the country 
several lawyers of eminent ability — notably 
Judge E. R. Hoar, Senator Hoar, their late 
father, and the present editor of the American 
Law Review. But this petition shows that legal 
acumen was not wanting in this family two 

*From manuscript notes of John Wlngate Thornton, 
Esq., appended to Ins private copy of the narrative of his 
ancestor, General Gookin, so often quoted in these pages. 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 59 

centuries ago. It is a curiousity in our judicial 
history, all the more valuable because of the 
unfortunate loss by fire of the records of the 
Colonial Court of Assistants, before which 
Hoar and his associates were brought to trial. 

Daniel Hoare and three others were con- 
victed "for murdering of a certain parcel of 
Indians" and sentenced to death. This fact is 
the more remarkable because the Hoar family 
were friendly to the Indians 

In connection with the rough manner in 
which the Wamesit Indians were hurried 
from their own homes to Boston, the still more 
brutal incidents attending their return should 
not be omitted. While they lay in prison at 
Charlestown, thirty-three of them "were sent tor 
before the General Court at Boston, and charged 
with burning a stack of hay at Chelmsford, 
belonging to James Richardson. ::: ' * But no 
proof appeared, and it was afterward discovered 
that they were all innocent, and that the enemy 
did it. The issue of this examination and 
charge was, that three of the company, viz. one 
named Will Hawkins, a Narragansett Indian, 
that used constantly to work about Salem, and 
was now, since the war, retired to Wamesit, and 
two others that were not praying Indians, nor 
properly belonged to Wamesit, but retired thither 



60 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

since the war ; these three were condemned to 
be sold for slaves, and sent out of the country, 
and accordingly committed to prison in order to 
their disposal out of the country ; afid afterward 
were sent away. But all the rest, being thirty, 
were to return back to Charlestown to continue 
under restraint still. A vote passed in the 
House of Deputies, as I heard, finding all the 
Wamesit Indians guilty of burning the hay ; 
but it was not consented to by the magistrates." 
"The rest of the Wamesit Indians, being 
about twenty in number, were sent back to their 
wives and children at Wamesit. But as they 
passed home, being under the guard of Lieu- 
tenant James Richardson, and a file of soldiers," 
Gookin relates that they marched through 
Woburn while the train band of that place was 
exercising. "Lieutenant Richardson and his 
Indians, with their guard, made a halt and he 
held out his handkerchief as a flag of truce, 
whereupon the Captain and officers of the band 
sent to Richardson, who showed them his com- 
mission from the Council to conduct those Indi- 
ans safely to their homes ; whereupon the 
Captain and officers gave very strict charge to 
all the soldiers not to shoot a gun until all the 
Indians were past and clear, nor yet to give 
any opprobious words. But notwithstanding 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 61 

this strict prohibition, when the Indians were 
passing by, a young fellow, a soldier named 
Knight, discharged his musket and killed one 
of the Indians stone dead, being very near him. 
The person slain was a stout young man, very 
nearly allied to the principal praying Indians 
of Natick and Wamesit.*" 

Since the War of 1676, the remnants of the 
five confederacies of New England Indians have 
generally professed Christianity — the Church of 
Rome attracting those of Maine, while the rest 
of them accepted, more or less heartily, the 
Protestant faith. The Narragansetts, the Po- 
kanokets, and the Pequots, had been substan- 
tially harried out of existence ; while of the 
Pawtuckets and the Massachusetts a mere 
wreck remained. 

In 1677, tne Indians in Massachusetts, 
including the praying natives, were grouped by 
the General Court in four villages of their own, 
Natick, Stoughton, Grafton and Wamesit.f But 
their lands were wanted by their white neighbors, 
and they found no rest. One by one these 
villages became extinct. Natick, which was the 
earliest, was also the last, of the praying towns. 

*See Gookin, in American Antiquarian Society's 
Collections, 2nd volume, pp. 4G2-521. See, also, Cowley's 
History of Lowell, and Shattuck's History of Concord. 

fMassachusetts Colony Records, vol. 5, p. 136. 



62 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

John Dunton, who visited Natick in 1705, 
has left vis a lively account of the village and of 
the Indian King and Queen. On his arrival 
there, he says, he "stept up and kissed the 
Indian Queen, making two very low hows, 
which she returned very civilly. The sachem 
was very tall, and well limbed, but had no beard, 
and a sort of a horse-face. The Queen was 
well shaped and her features might pass pretty 
well; she had eyes as black as jet, and teeth as 
white as ivory; her hair was very black and long, 
and she was considerably up in years ; her dress 
peculiar, she had sleeves of moose-skin, very 
finely dressed, and drawn with lines of various 
colors, in Asiatic work, and her buskins were of 
the same sort ; her mantle was of fine blue-cloth, 
but very short, and tied about her shoulders 
and at the middle with a zone, curiously wrought 
with white and blue beads, into pretty figures ; 
her bracelets and her necklace were of the same 
sort of beads, and she had a little tablet upon 
her breast, very finely decked with jewels and 
precious stones ; her hair was combed back and 
tied up with a border which was neatly worked, 
with gold and silver. " 

The Indian town government of Natick 
outlived that of the church, but finally passed 

♦Life and Errors of John Dunton, p. 158. 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 63 

into the control of the white inhabitants. The 
records of the town, originally kept in the Indian 
language alone, were now kept in both English 
and Indian, and the town offices were divided 
between the two races, the whites taking the 
lion's share, and "the reds the lamb's. Finally 
the lamb's share, following the law of <( the 
survival of the fittest," passed to the whites 
with the lion's. The number of the tribe in 
1749, was 166 ; in 1763, was 37 ; in 1797, was 
20 ; and in 1826 the tribe was extinct. 

Not only have all these towns of praying 
Indians vanished into gloom, but five or six 
generations of white men have affected to look 
with pity upon the labors of Eliot and Gookin 
as fated to be fruitless, however well meant. 
Eliot and Gookin can bear all this, and more 
than this ; they can bear it for two thousand 
years, as they have already borne it for two 
hundred years. 

Shallow, self-complacent men may the- 
orize as they please ; it will be found at last that 
Eliot and Gookin were right, and that the 
hopes which they indulged, of the capacity of 
the Indians for civilization, were well founded, 
and might have been realized, but for events 
over which they and their Indian clients had no 
control. 



64 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

Although great numbers of Indians have 
perished by wars of dispossession and imported 
diseases since the colonization of this Continent 
by Europeans, and some tribes have become 
extinct, two facts may now be regarded as set- 
tled : first, that the number of Indians inhabit- 
ing America at the time of Columbus has been 
grossly exaggerated ; second, that in those 
localities where the Indian occupation has been 
permanent and free from the incursions of the 
whites, the Indians have steadily increased in 
numbers, and they have partially recovered from 
their former immense losses. 

The great Dakota tribe, for example, has 
been steadily increasing ever since it first be- 
came known. 

Since this narrative was begun, the Bible 
and Tract Distributing Society have published 
an able Lecture by Stanley Pumphrey, of Eng- 
land, on Indian Civilization, which demonstrates 
the soundness of Eliot and Gookin's plans, 
although neither they nor their plans are any- 
where named therein. The greater part of 
Mr. Pumphrey's lecture is devoted to a com- 
parison from his personal examination between 
the present condition of the tribes in the Indian 

*On Indian Civilization, see Mallory's Calender of 
the Dakota Nation. » 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 65 

Territory — Creeks, Cherokees, Chickasaws, 
Choctaws, etc. — with that at the time of their 
inspection by Commissioners John D. Lang 
and Samuel Taylor thirty-five years ago. The 
result shows a most gratifying and surprising 
advance. The array of facts and figures proves 
that in agricultural wealth, good order in self- 
government, education, and even religion, those 
Indians who have been left for even a compara- 
tively short period without being driven to 
desperation by governmental injustice and white 
incursions, can stand a favorable comparison 
with our average frontier population. 

The New York Nation ( No. 642 ) com- 
mends this lecture as "one of the recent works 
about our native American race which show 
sense instead of sentiment, and observation of 
facts instead of theorizing about the red man 
being ferce natures and withering at contact with 
the white." Referring to the increase in our 
Indian population, the Nation adds : "This 
truth, when appreciated by the people and Con- 
gress, will do much to require a permanent 
improvement in our Indian policy. While the 
civilization of the race seemed hopeless and their 
extinction imminent, their claims might be 
slighted, but not when they certainly can be 
made a considerable and useful part of the com- 



66 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

raunity. The plan hitherto has been a mere 
temporary adjustment of pressing difficulties 
for the supposed advantage of Government or 
selfish greed of speculators ; now it must be the 
preservation, reclamation, and final elevation to 
citizenship of the race entrusted to our national 
custody. If that race can furnish, with no 
unreasonable delay, , a goodly number of tax- 
paying citizens, it is obviously better than to 
expend both citizens and treasure in wars 
occasioned by unjust coercion, dishonoring our 
character both for integrity and good judgment." 
No one has yet attempted to trace the 
many correspondences in the lives of the Rev. 
John Eliot and the Rev. John Wesley. But in 
their zeal for the salvation of men, and especially 
of the Indians ; in their lives of unremitting 
toil as preachers ; in their devotion to learning 
and to literary labor ; in that genius which 
makes man supreme above his accidents, and 
enables him to project plans of usefulness and 
beneficence which live for ages, — in these and 
in many other things, Eliot and Wesley were 
remarkably alike. The mild Calvinism of Eliot 
could not have been offensive to the Arminian- 
ism of Wesley who gave such a wealth of love 
to Whitefield. It is a wonder the great Meth- 
odist body have not claimed Eliot as an earlier 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 67 

Methodist — as one born, like the apostle of old, 
"out of due time." 

The biographer of the immortal Wesley, 
referring to his employment of lay preachers, 
says : "The step he took was momentous ; and 
marvelous is the fact that the very Church, 
which so branded him for such a departure from 
Church order, is now actually copying his 
example." He thinks it a notable incident, that 
in May, 1869, "Dr. Jackson, Bishop of London, 
formally authorized eight laymen to read prayers, 
and to read and explain the Holy Scriptures, 
and to conduct religious services for the poor in 
schools, and mission rooms, and in the open 
air.*" Yet this was no more than Eliot had 
done several generations before. 

The catholicity of Eliot was exemplified in 
the visit which he received from the Rev. Gabriel 
Druillettes, the Roman Catholic missionary to 
the Indians on the Kennebec River, of which 
visit another Roman Catholic missionary gives 
the following account : — 

Dans ce voyage le Pere visita, a Roxbury, 
le ministre Eliot, appele par les Anglais l'apotre 
des sauvages. Ce ministre dut etre fort etonne 
en voyant le missionnaire Jesuite, qui parlait 
la langue sauvage aussi bien que les sauvages 

*Tyermau's Life of Wesley, vol. 1, p. 371. 



68 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

eux-memes et dont "l'habit et l'equipage le 
rapprochaient plus d'un sauvage que d'un 
Francais de mediocre condition." Cependant 
il le regut avec bienveillance; "Le Ministre," 
ecrit le Pere, "nomme maitre Heliot, qui ensei- 
gnait quelques sauvages, me retint chez lui, a 
cause qua la nuit me surprenait, et me .traita 
avec respect et affection, et me pria de passer 
l'hiver avec lui." 

II visita anssi quelques bourgades sauvages. 
II put s'entretenir longuement avec ces sauvages 
parcequ'ils parlaient la meme langue que les 
Abenakis."* 

How great was the joy of these saintly men, 
on finding that the language of their copper- 
colored converts, on the Merrimack, and on the 
Kennebec, was one and the same. 

When the Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury, a graduate 
of the Theological Seminary at Andover, and 
the first Indian missionary of the American 
Board, began his labors among the Chickasaws 
and Choctaws, on the Yazoo River, in 1818, he 
remembered "the Apostle of the Indians," and 
called the town Eliot. f 

•Histolre des Abenakis, depuis 1G03 jusqu'anos jours. 
Par L'Abbe J. A. Maurault. 

tSee Bartlett's Historical Sketch of the Missions of 
the American Board among the North American Indians. 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 63 

The generous General Gookin was severely 
densured by the General Court for licensing the 
"Imitation of Christ," of Thomas A'Kempis, of 
which Joseph Cook, the exponent of modern 
Orthodoxy, says : — "A sweet aroma breathes 
from it as from the earliest and most modest of 
the spring blossoms. A Romish work, if you 
please, but none the worse for that, so far as its 
devotional side is concerned. It it adopted 
everywhere by Protestantism, and linked, there- 
fore, to all ages, Romish and Protestant, back to 
the day when there was neither Romanist nor 
Protestant." This book was a favorite one of 
John Wesley, and strongly recommended by 
him to the Methodists. 

In the early days of Middlesex, the affairs 
of the County were managed with great pru- 
dence and economy. There were checks upon 
expenditures, which, had they been continued, 
might have saved us from the losses and 
disgraces incident to the County Tweedism of 
more recent years. The regulations touching 
these affairs are found in the fourth volume of 
the Colony Records, (pages 184-186,) and 
deserve perusal and reperusal. 

In 1685, power for the probate of wills and 
the settement of estates was conferred upon the 
County Courts. This business, which had been 



•jo HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

very loosely done before, continued to be 
transacted in a slip-shod manner until the 
time of Sir Edmund Andross. Whatever errors 
are chargeable to Governor Andross, we owe to 
him the method of procedure which' has been 
practiced ever since his time in the probate of 
wills and in the granting of administrations. It 
is a modification of the practice which obtained 
at Doctors' Commons in England, with which 
Andross was familiar. 

In the general rehabilitation of damaged 
reputations in our times, and when the dust has 
been brushed away from so many famous urns, 
I wonder that no advocate has yet moved to set 
aside the verdict of the people against Sir Ed- 
mund Andross. All the judgments of History 
are subject to perpetual appeal. Sir Edmund 
had the misfortune to be "born out of due time." 
Like Daniel Webster on another occasion, he 
spoke and acted, "not as a Massachusetts man, 
or as a Northern man, but as an American," 
struggling for an American Union : and under 
his ill-starred administration, all the Colonies from 
Nova Scotia to Maryland were united under one 
government. This is not the place to white- 
wash this long-departed and much-defamed 
Governor. I only allude to him to foretell the 
coming of one who will do for Andross what 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 71 

Walpole did for Richard the Third, and what 
Mr. Froude has done for Henry the Eighth. 

The Courts of Common Pleas for this 
County were held by the Deputy Governor and 
Assistants until October, 1692, when a Court, 
consisting of a Chief Justice and sundry Justices 
of the Peace, was held for a single term, and its 
first regular term after its organization under the 
Province Charter seems to have been held De- 
cember 1 3, 1692. For several terms however, 
after that, for some reason, three or more Jus- 
tices of the Peace sat with the regular Judges 
when they held the court, though this custom 
was soon discontinued. 

The first County Court House in Cam- 
bridge* was burned in 1671, with a volume of 
the County Court Records — 1663-167 1. 

The following roll of the Judges of the old 
Middlesex Court of Common Pleas, with the 
dates showing when they began, and when they 
ceased, to serve, prior to the Revolution, was 
prepared by Judge Washburn, formerly of 
Lowell ; but I have taken the liberty to correct 
various errors, and supply various omissions, 
made by him, he not having the\)riginal records. f 

♦The present County Court House in East Cambridge 
was erected in 181G. Prior to that time the County 
buildings at Cambridge were located at Harvard Square. 

■(•Judicial History of Massachusetts, pp. 337-344. 



72 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

John Phillips, December 7, 1692, to 1715. 

James Russell, December 7, 1692, to 1709. 

Joseph Lynde, December 7, 1692, to 1719. 

Samuel Haymau, December 7, 1692, to 1702. 

Jonathan Tyng, July, 1702, to 1719. 

Francis Foxcroft, June, 1709, to 1719. 

Jonathan Remington, December, 1715, to 1733. 

Jonathan Dowse, June, 1719, to 1741. 

Charles Chambers, June, 1719, to 1739. 

Francis Fulham, June, 1719, to 1755. 

Thomas Greaves, 1733, to 1738, and from 1739 to 1747. 

Francis Foxcroft, March 1737, to 1764. 

Samuel Dauforth. July 1741, to Revolution. 

Chambers Russell, August 1747, to 1752. 

Andrew Boardman, April 1752, to 1769. 

William Lawrence, June 1755, to 1763. 

John Tyng, September 17(13, to Revolution. 

Richard Foster, March 1764, to 1771. 

Joseph Lee, May, 1769, to Revolution. 

James Russell, May, 1771, to Revolution.* 

Charlestovvn, in which the first Courts were 
held in Middlesex, continued to be one of the 
regular places for holding courts till 1775. 
Regular terms of the Courts were held at Con- 
cord, from 1692 to 1859, and at Groton from 1778 
to 1796. Lowell, I may here add, became one 
of the places for holding Courts in 1837. 



♦Whitmore says the last term of this Court was held 
May 21, 1774. Mass. Civil List, p. S8. Washburn says, 
Commissions were issued, on November 2, 1775, to John 
Tyng, of Dunstable, Henry Gardner, of Stowe, Samuel P. 
Savage, of Weston, and John Remington. The Post- 
Revolutionary Judges of this Court will appear elsewhere 
in this Manual. 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 73 

The military events which took place in 
Middlesex during the War of the Revolution — 
the expedition of Major Pitcairn to Concord and 
the battle of Bunker Hill — belong to National 
History rather than to County Annals ; and (like 
the fight at Sudbury and the massacre at Bloody 
Brook in Phillip's War), they have been told too 
often to require rehearsal here. I prefer paths 
less trodden by others — some of them, indeed, 
never traversed before — away from the noise of 
the bugles of battle, "the thunder of the cap- 
tains, and the shouting." 

The Revolutionary War was followed by 
even greater stagnation in business than has 
occurred since the Civil War. The States and 
the Nation, municipal corporations and indi- 
viduals, were groaning under the burden of debt. 
Thousands of farmers, though owning extensive 
farms, were destitute of money, and powerless 
to save their farms from mortgages or from 
seizure under process of law. These and other 
evils were keenly felt by the people. The 
Commonwealth was in commotion. 

Middlesex County was profoundly stirred ; 
still more were Worcester and the Western 
Counties, which sprang from her prolific loins. 

Conventions were held at Groton and at 
Concord, as well as at Worcester and other 



74 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

towns ; and organized movements were made to 
prevent the sitting of the courts, and thereby 
delay the entry of judgments against im- 
pecunious defendants. 

How great was the distress, was partly 
indicated by the fact that, whereas only 120 
actions were entered at the November term of 
the Court of Common Pleas in 1782, (which I 
assume to have been about an average number,) 
— no less than 360 actions were entered at the 
March term of that Court in 1786. 

At three terms of the Court of Common 
Pleas, in 1784, there were entered 978 writs, 
and in the following year, 845 writs. 

On the 1 2th of September, 1786, during 
Shay's Rebellion, an insurgent iorce of two 
hundred men took possession of the court house 
at Concord to prevent the sitting of the Court 
of Common Pleas there, in which they succeeded. 

But the General Court at once passed a 
resolve providing that all actions and appeals 
which should have been returned and 
entered at that time, should be returned and 
entered at the November term of the same 
Court. So that the insurgents gained little by 
thus obstructing the Court. 

As other counties suffered more than Mid- 
dlesex so in other counties the resistance to the 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 75 

foreclosure laws was greater than in Middlesex : 
yet there is not a town of old Middlesex but 
might boast — 

"Some village Hampden that with dauntless hreast 
The little tyrant of his fields withstood." 
It has long been the custom to treat the 

"Shay's Rebellion" as a movement of knaves 
and fools. This is a shallow view of it. There 
was great and wide-spread distress. The natu- 
ral reaction of the Revolution came with a force 
a thousand-fold augmented by the burdens and 
the evils which that Revolution involved. Those 
who have suffered, or are now suffering, from 
the results of our Civil War, will appreciate the 
sentiments which found wild expression in 
"Shay's Rebellion." If Shays, Wheeler, Par- 
sons and Day, are to be stoned by any body, 
they certainly ought not to be stoned by those 
who passed the Savings Bank Stay Law of 
1878, which is said to have been drawn by 
Charles R. Train, Attorney General of the 
State, and Counsel for the Home Savings Bank, 
and which is facetiously entitled "An Act for 
the better Protection of Depositors in Savings 
Banks."* 

It is the fashion of our times to complain 
of the rule of "rings," — and there is cause for 

*See chapter 73 of the Acts of 1878, and the criticisms 
of the Nation and New York Tribune thereon. 



76 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

these complaints. But the evil is not of 
modern origin. One has only to look over the 
lists of office-holders prior to the Revolution to 
see that the offices were generally in the hands 
of a few families and that these families were 
closely allied by marriages. The influence of 
the pressure of this oligarchy, more offensive 
than that of King or Parliament, in producing 
the Revolution, has never yet been adequately 
set forth. I may add that one of the most 
clearly articulated causes of Shay's Rebellion 
was the disgust of the people on realizing that 
the Tory Gentry who bore rule before the 
Revolution had merely given place to a money- 
lending oligarchy that possessed none of the 
grace, but ten-fold the rapacity, of the ancient 
regime. 

In the Constitutional Convention of 1788, 
the votes of a majority of the Middlesex Dele- 
gates — 17 to 25 — were given against the 
adoption of the Federal Constitution. The 
Delegates from the ancient towns of Cambridge, 
Charlestown, Concord, Nenvton, Framingham, 
Lexington, Sherborn, Sudbury, Maiden, Wes- 
ton, Medford, Stow, Waltham, Dracut, Dunstable, 
and Lincoln, voted for the Constitution ; while 
Billerica, Chelmsford, Tewksbury, Watertown, 
Woburn, Reading, Marlborough, Hopkinton, 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 77 

Westford, Groton, Shirley, Pepperell, Townsend, 
Bedford, Holliston, Acton, Carlisle, Wilmington, 
Littleton, Ashby, Natick, Stoneham and East 
Sudbury voted against it. 

The vote of the whole Convention was 187 
to 168, — only a majority of 19 in favor of the 
Constitution, in Massachusetts. Had the Con- 
stitution been submitted to a vote of the people 
of Massachusetts, it is highly probable that 
it would have been rejected. 

Seldom has a greater result depended upon 
so small a cause. The change of ten Delegates 
from the Valley of the Merrimack would prob- 
ably have defeated the adoption of the Constitu- 
tion of the United States. Such a change 
would clearly have placed Massachusetts against 
that scheme of government ; and Madison, 
looking anxiously out of his Virginia home, 
wrote : "The decision of Massachusetts, in 
either way, will decide the vote of this State." 

Those views of State Rights and State 
Sovereignty which culminated in our Civil War, 
were as strenuously maintained by thousands of 
the men of Middlesex and other Northern 
Counties, in 1789, as in Charleston or any other 
Southern City in 1861. 

There is an ancient saying, "Happy are the 
people whose annals are barren." The County 



yS HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

Annals of Middlesex, since Shay's Rebellion, 
have been sufficiently dull, though lit up now 
and then by the flames of a burning Convent 
at Charlestown, or a burning Court House at 
Concord. The changes in the County Courts 
or in the County offices have not been great, 
and these are stated elsewhere in this Manual. 
The County has shared liberally in all the move- 
ments of the State and the Nation in peace 
and war ; but these movements are beyond the 
scope of this sketch. Even the development of 
canals, railroads and manufactures, in which Mid- 
dlesex was among the foremost, belongs properly 
to other narratives than this, and there has been 
no lack of writers to record that development 
with all desirable fullness of detail. 

In 1792, the Proprietors of the Middlesex 
Merrimack River Bridge were incorporated ; 
they built the first bridge across the Merrimack 
at Pawtucket Falls, where from time immemorial 
there had been a toll ferry. 

On June 22, 1793, the Proprietors of the 
Middlesex Canal were incorporated ; they con- 
structed a canal from the Merrimack, where 
Lowell now stands, to what is now Boston. The 
sum of $1,164,200 was assessed to pay for it.* 

♦See "Historical Sketch of the Middlesex Canal," 
printed in 1843 by Caleb Eddy. 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 79 

In 1805, the Middlesex Turnpike Corpora- 
tion was established, which opened a turnpike 
road from Tyngsborough through Chelmsford, 
Billerica and Bedford to Cambridge. 

Some persons delight to recount the "first 
things" that have taken place in their places of 
abode. Were Middlesex people thus minded, 
they might boast of the first printing-press in 
the United States, the first college in America, 
the first canal for the transportation of freight 
and passengers, the first canal for water power, 
the first battle of the Revolution, the first 
American-made broadcloth, the first carding- 
machine, the first power-loom, the first Protes- 
tant mission, the first New England Convent, and 
an almost endless catalogue of other first things. 
With Middlesex County are identified the 
inventive labors of Francis Cabot Lowell in 
cotton machinery, of Morse in telegraphy, of 
Goodyear in India rubber, of Howe in sewing 
machinery, and other lesser lights in the fir- 
mament of inventive genius, of whom it is not 
too much to say that they are among the 
greatest benefactors of the nation and of the 
human race. 

CHARLES COWLEY. 



FINANCIAL REFORMS 

IN THE 

COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 



By the annexation of Charlestown and 
Brighton to Boston in 1874, the County of 
Middlesex lost a population of forty thousand 
persons and a valuation of thirty-five million 
dollars. Nevertheless, in 1874, the County 
Commissioners called upon the General Court 
for an appropriation of #225,000 — being $25,- 
000 more than the appropriation of the 
previous year — for County expenditures. There 
being no apparent cause for this extraordinary 
increase, the author of this article, being then 
a member of the House of Representatives, 
introduced the following order : — 

Ordered, that a Special Committee be ap- 
pointed, consisting of the present Committee 
on "County Estimates," with an addition of one 



82 FINANCIAL REFORMS IN 

member from each county, to investigate the 
county appropriations asked for, and ascertain 
whether a reduction can be made consistent 
with public interest, and if any legislation is 
necessary in county matters. 

Of the twenty-one Representatives compos- 
ing this Committee, eighteen reported favorably 
to the appropriation asked for by the County 
Commissioners - Mr. Charles Alden of Ashland 
and the present writer made a minority report 
reducing this appropriation $33,000. Convinced 
that $192,000 was sufficient for all the legitimate 
expenditures of Middlesex County, the House, 
by an overwhelming vote, rejected the majority 
report, and adopted that of the minority, In 
the minority report, it was said, "while we do 
not object to appropriating as much for criminal 
costs this year as was used last year, we can see 
no reason for appropriating a dollar, providing 
the business of our courts is conducted as 
economically and judiciously as those of other 
counties. Our criminal business should be 
remunerative instead of burdensome. 

Suffolk County, with a population of 
270,802 in 1870, yielded a revenue from this 
scource in 1873 of $12,138.03. Worcester 
County, with a population of 192,71s in 1870, 
yielded a revenue in 1S73 of $5,174.97. Mid- 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 83 

dlesex County, with a population of 274,353 in 
1870, was at a loss in 1873 of $11,681.31." 

At hearings before this committee Amos 
Stone, the County Treasurer, stated that the 
annual cost of all the criminial prosecutions in 
this county exceeded the income therefrom by 
about $30,000. Startling as the statement 
seemed, it was true. Of the many thousand 
dollars paid by sureties on forfeited recogniz- 
ances, not a dollar had been paid into the county 
treasury since 1S64. All the moneys collected 
on forfeited recognizances in Middlesex for ten 
years in succession had mysteriously disap- 
peared : while Suffolk had yielded from this 
source over eighty thousand dollars, during the 
same period. Although this fact was elicited 
in evidence at a hearing before a Legislative 
Committee four years ago, nobody has been 
hung, or put upon trial, for these embezzle- 
ments. 

For a long term of years the Middlesex 
County Commissioners made no returns to the 
Treasury for their services in locating roads for 
towns or for costs on petitions for highways not 
granted ; while in Worcester, the youngest of her 
virtuous daughters, thousands of dollars were 
returned, through her County Commissioners. 
What became of these dues, imperative by the 



84 FINANCIAL REFORMS IN 

law to collect, is unknown to me, nor could I 
learn from the blind records of these commissi- 
oners. Is it likely they were not collected ? Is 
it not more likely they were collected and 
divided? 

It was found that the County Commission- 
ers had paid George W. Young and others 
$2,250 for "lobbying" the Legislature, chiefly in 
opposition to the annexation of Charlestown — 
an expenditure contrary alike to law and public 
policy. 

The railroads of our times have so nearly 
superseded post-roads for general transportation, 
the expenditures of the County for highways 
might be expected to be diminished to almost 
the vanishing point. In fact, however, these 
expenses were augmented during the ten years 
above mentioned as follows : — 

1864, - $3,273-95 

1865, - - - $2,835.65 

1866, _ $5,153.22 

1867, $7.485-44 

1868, $6,797.42 

1869, . $18,848.49 

1870, --------- $24,936.64 

1871, $21,552.12 

1872, - - - $30,231.07 

1873, --------- $37,739.07 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 85 

From these amounts should properly be 
deducted such sums as were legally collectable 
from the localities specially benefited. After 
making these deductions, the following sums 
were taxed to the County for Highways : — 
1864, ---------- $2; 707.00 

1S65, --------- $2,476.54 

1866, ---------- $4,015.00 

1867, --------- $5,659.00 

1 80S, ---------- $4,170.00 

1869, --------- $17,223.75 

1870, ---------- $12,371.85 

1871, --------- $15,776.75 

1872, ---------- $27,832.62 

1873, --------- $31,660.71 

1874, ---------- $31,622.39 

1875, --------- $18,494.51 

1876, ---------- $14,384.15 

1877, --------- #8,640.69 

The testimony of the County Treasurer 

before the Committee was doubtless true, "that 
these extraordinary expenditures were not for 
new roads, but mostly for widening and beauti- 
fying streets in villages in the lower part of the 
county." These expenditures being under the 
direct control of the County Commissioners, 
they cannot escape the censure which is due 
for having thus unjustly taxed the cities of 



86 FINANCIAL REFORMS IN 

Cambridge, Charlestown, Lowell, and the 
northern and western towns in the County, for 
the comfort and convenience of villages in 
Southern Middlesex. 

The cost of Tyngsboro Bridge across 
Merrimack River being considered, it was found 
that the estimated cost was $35,000. Responsi- 
ble contractors offered to build that bridge and 
furnish good and satisfactory bonds for its 
completion, for that sum ; nevertheless, for 
some unexplained reason, the County Commis- 
sioners completed that bridge, and taxed the 
treasury over $92,000 for that "little job." 

The General Statutes, chapter 43, section 
2, provide, that "No petition for the laying out, 
altering, or discontinuing, a highway, shall be 
proceeded upon by the commissioners, until the 
petitioners cause a sufficient recognizance to be 
given to the county, with surety to the satisfac- 
tion of the commissioners, for the payment of 
all costs and expenses which shall arise by reason 
of such petition and the proceedings thereon, if 
the petitioners shall not finally prevail." 

Whether any money from this scource was 
paid into the county treasury in the long period 
during which Mr. Leonard Huntress was the 
controlling mind of the board, 1 know not ; but 
during the period covered by the investigations 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 87 

of this committee, not a dollar is reported from 
this source. Yet Mr. Huntress himself testified 
that "ten or a dozen" such cases occurred every 
year. 

It appears that in 1874, the year of the 
investigation, a small sum ($83.70) was paid 
into the treasury as required by this law. 
According to Mr. Huntress's statements before 
the Committee, there were then outstanding 
claims in favor of the County from this scource. 

In view of the apparent irregularities in 
County affairs, the House appointed another 
special committee for the prosecution of this 
investigation, consisting of John Cummings, of 
Woburn, S. O. Lamb, of Greenfield, Jonathan 
Johnson, of Lowell, W. C. Parker, Jr., of New 
Bedford, and Wm. G. Bassett, of East Hampton. 

The report of this Committee 1 was made 
to the General Court in 1875, and is House 
Document No. 18 of that year. It should be 
read by all who would understand how rank 
were the abuses in County administration. 

I do not charge, I have never charged, the 
Sheriff, or the Treasurer, or the Clerk of the 
Courts, with peculation, or with any irregularity 
in their own accounts. But I cannot forbear 
to censure the Sheriff for not scrutinizing more 
closely the acts of some of his deputies and 
the master of the House of Correction. 



8S FINANCIAL REFORMS IN 

The County Commissioners for those years 
of fraud and corruption, the Clerk of the 
Courts, and the Sheriff, had every reason to 
know that moneys were often being paid on 
forfeited recognizances which never reached the 
Treasury. With such delinquencies existing 
before their eyes, they ought, as faithful public 
servants, to have made some active and even 
aggressive effort to correct these wrongs, and 
secure to the County what belonged to it. 

Mr. Kimball's pretence that the moneys 
collected for forfeited recognizances were paid 
into the treasury under another head, — "fines 
and costs," — will not stand examination. Mr. 
Stone is right, and he is wrong as to this. On 
Mr. Stone's testimony, the blame belongs to the 
District Attorneys — Isaac S. Morse and John 
B. Goodrich — and also to Sheriff Kimball. 

Thousands of dollars, which had accumu- 
lated in the hands ol Trial Justices and Clerks 
of Courts for unclaimed witness fees, were 
paid into the County Treasury in consequence 
of this investigation ; and moneys from this 
scource are still coming in constantly, which, 
but for that investigation, would never have 
been accounted for. 

Two years after these investigations were 
made, Mr. Adams concocted and published in 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 89 

the Boston Herald an excuse or explanation of 
the discrepancies in the books of the House of 
Correction, which the Herald* treated with 
the small respect it deserved. He would have 
us believe (as a friend of mine puts it,) "that 
just before the Legislative Committee began 
this investigation, his own vigilance was "quick- 
ened" (like Mrs. Tilton's conscience) and he 
began a thorough investigation of himself by 
himself, and had pretty much concluded the 
work when the Committee called upon him." 

Since the probing of the management of 
the Middlesex House of Correction in 1874, the 
County Treasury has received about 130 per 
cent, more from convict labor than the average 
receipts of the ten preceding years ; and it is to 
be noted that those ten preceding years were 
years of extraordinary general prosperity, whic^Hp 
ever since 1874 the county has groaned under 
"hard times." 

Mr. Stevens, the present District Attorney, 
has effected several wholesome reforms in the 
administration of his office. The successors of 
Mr. Huntress have also shown good sense by a 
marked departure from his works and ways, 
and have evinced a disposition to follow the 
footsteps of Josiah B. French and Daniel S. 
*See Boston Herald, October 17, 21, and 20, 1877. 



90 FINANCIAL REFORMS IN 

Richardson, who tolerated no abuses while they 
were County Commissioners. But my complaint 
is, that the system is wrong, and that similar 
abuses may at any time revive. 

One of the recommendations of this Com- 
mittee was a law — which I hope to see enacted — 
as follows : — 

"In all cases in which there has been here- 
tofore, or is hereafter, any failure on the part of 
any trial justice, sheriff, deputy sheriff, jailer, 
constable, or any other officer, to pay into the 
county treasury any money which by law ought 
to be paid, it shall be the duty of the connty 
treasurer to take appropriate legal steps to 
compel such payment ; and it shall be the duty 
of the several district attorneys within their 
districts, if applied to for this purpose, to take 
charge of such legal proceedings as may be 
appropriate." 

Among the good points of this report, I 
quote the following : — 

"The accounts of the House of Correction, 
at Cambridge, have been kept in an astonishingly 
imperfect manner. The manufacture of brushes 
has been carried on there, the help consisting of 
the prisoners confined. The jail and house of 
correction are two institutions in one. There has 
been but one bank account for both, and that 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 91 

kept in the name of Mr. Harrington, the keeper 
of accounts. This account has been wholly a 
private one, and his own personal relations with 
the bank have been identical with those of the 
institutions. If, when he made returns, and 
paid over all moneys which, according to his 
accounts, were due the treasurer, a balance 
remained in the bank, it is plain Mr. Harrington 
must have considered it as belonging to him. 
So that, if any discrepancy occurred in the 
returns, Mr. Harrington was enriched by the 
amount of such discrepancy. From the books, 
it is impossible to ascertain whether the manu- 
facturing department has been run at a profit or 
at a loss to the county." 

The subject of convict labor in this and 
other similar institutions in this State is to be 
further investigated, under the following resolve : 

"Resolved, That the Bureau of Statistics 
of Labor is hereby authorized to make a full 
investigation as to the kind and amount of work 
performed at the penal institutions of this State, 
and as to all the facts pertaining to the same." 
{Approved April 6, 1 878. 

In the days of our fathers, when inter-State 
trade was carried on by post-roads, it may have 
been a matter of public convenience to have a 
board of County Commissioners to direct and 



92 FINANCIAL REFORMS IN 

manage the County highways. But no such 
board is now required. The interests of the 
County demand that the Commissioners be 
abolished. They are absolutely irresponsible 
for their acts, upon which there is no check 
whatever. There is no other body like them in 
our republican system. They are petty Kings. 
In a County like this with its large expenditures, 
the people owe it to themselves that they should 
at least provide the safeguard of an Auditor of 
Accounts. I would suggest, in lieu of these 
Commissioners, the establishment of a County 
Committee consisting of (say) twelve men 
chosen annually by a convention consisting of the ■ 
mayors of all the cities and the chairmen of the 
selectmen of all the towns in the County. This 
would seem to render "ring rule" impossible and 
secure a prudent management of our affairs. 

I desire to record my hearty appreciation 
of the manner in which County Treasurer Stone 
aided this work of investigation, as well as of 
his general high merit as a public officer. 

JONATHAN JOHNSON. 



RECONSTRUCTION 

OF THE 

COUNT! OP MIDDLESEX. 



On October 20th, 1877, a convention was 
held in Lowell, of citizens of Middlesex favor- 
able to the reconstruction of the county lines. 
Charles Cowley presided, an informal discus- 
sion took place, and a committee was appointed 
to take steps to agitate the subject, and to call 
another and larger convention thereafter. The 
following is the substance of the remarks of the 

Chairman :— . 

When this county was first established in 
1643, it had no definite boundaries. Essex had 
Norfolk on the North, and Suffolk on the South, 
while Middlesex included all those towns 
between Essex and the Connecticut River 
Hampshire, which was established in 1662, and 



96 RECONSTRUCTION OF 

which originally included Hampden, Franklin 
and Berkshire, took from Middlesex by far the 
greater part of her original territory. The sep 
aration of the Colony of New Hampshire from 
the Colony of Massachusetts, in 1680, took from 
Middlesex the larger part of the territory which 
remained to her upon the incorporation of 
Hampshire. The adjustment of the boundary 
line between these two colonies, in 1743, took 
off another large slice of the " sacred 'soil." 
Finally the incorporation of Worcester in 1731 
cut off the greater part of all that then remained 
of ancient Middlesex, after the successive 
mutilations just mentioned. Should the project 
to establish the County of Lincoln, which has 
from time to time been urged ever since the 
separation of Worcester, succeed, the limits of 
Middlesex would be further curtailed ; and in be- 
half of that project, there is much to be said.* 

Old Middlesex has thus so often been mu- 
tilated, that it is but a fragment of what it was ; 
yet it seems to me eminently desirable that it 
should be materially abridged still further. 
What, for example, have Ashby, Holliston 
Maiden and North Reading in common with 
Lowell or with Newton, which they have not 

at^* S w Shatt " tk ' s History of Concord, pp. 144-147- 
Mass. House Document, No. 324, 1874. ' 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 97 

with Worcester, Dedham, Salem and Lawrence? 
Holliston's contiguity to Dedham plainly indi- 
cates her true place as in Norfolk, if that- 
County is to remain as it is. Maiden should go 
to Boston for her judicial business, and North 
Reading to Lawrence. Several other towns of 
Middlesex would be benefited by a reconstruc- 
tion of the county system. 

If I had the power, I would make Boston 
the county seat of a great Metropolitan County, 
which should include all the municipalties as 
far North as Woburn, as far West as Newton, 
and other municipalities within the same dis- 
tance from Boston ; and in Boston all their jury 
trials should be held. 

The completion of our system of railroads 
involves the expediency, — nay, even the neces- 
sity, — of such a reconstruction of county lines 
as will group municipalities into counties with 
special reference to their facilities for intercom- 
munication by rail. 

Such a reconstruction of Middlesex would 
leave Lowell as the sole county seat.* The 
Court House at East Cambridge would furnish 
ample accommodations for the Superior Crim- 
inal Courts of Suffolk ; and to Suffolk the other 

*See Judge Ames' Letter, House Doc. No. 324, 1874. 



98 RECONSTRUCTION OF 

County buildings in Cambridge should be trans- 
ferred. Suffolk needs them all. 

Were Lowell made the centre and sole 
seat of our county life and business, no such 
abuses as those brought to light in 1874 could 
long exist undiscovered, or unchecked. Well 
compacted together as the different parts of the 
county would be, a sense of county pride would 
be created. County affairs would be better 
discussed and cared for. All county transac- 
tions would be more certain to be known, re- 
ported and understood, and the best security 
would be obtained for prudence and economy in 
county government. 

Mr. A. P. Bonney, of this city, suggested, 
many years ago, that the County Commissioners 
be abolished ; that all County institutions in 
the State be place under one Board ; and that 
highways be laid out or discontinued by com- 
misioners appointed by the Superior Court, upon 
petition of parties interested, and at the expense 
of the towns concerned. 

That suggestion I think was a good one. 
And I think there should be a County Auditor ; 
the worthlessness of the present system of 
auditing county bills being too palpable for 
discussion. 



THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 



99 



But I have no very sanguine hope for any 
immediate reform. Much discussion will be 
necessary, and the work will require time. 
Now that the abnormal or revolutionary period of 
our national political history has passed, atten- 
tion will ere long be given to State and County 
affairs, — too long sadly neglected. I trust the 
effort here and now begun will lead to wider 
and larger efforts hereafter, until such changes 
shall have been effected in our county affairs 
as shall enable us to recall with satisfaction 
the initiatory work of this day. 



Since the foregoing remarks were made, 
two terms of the Supreme Court, and two terms 
of the Superior (Criminal) Court, have been 
held in Middlesex. The expenses incurred, by 
parties residing in Northern Middlesex, in 
divorce suits alone, in travelling day after day, 
with counsel and witnesses, to and from Cam- 
bridge, in December, 1877, must have exceeded 
six hundred dollars. These are cases which 
could and should be heard near where the parties 
reside ; and the parties are the least able to 
bear unnecessary expense. The April term of 
the Supreme Court involved searcely less un- 



ioo RECONSTRUCTION OF 

necessary expense ; although this term was 
meant by law to have been held in Lowell 
exclusively. 

The deserted and abused wives who come 
to Lowell to eke out a subsistence for them- 
selves and their children by working in the 
factories, deserve the sympathy of Courts as 
well as of all right-feeling people, and their 
path to freedom from the (to them) oppressive 
bonds of matrimony ought to be made easier 
rather than harder, in everv practicable way. 

The oppression (I use that word advisedly) 
endured by defendants residing in Northern 
Middlesex, whose causes were heard at the 
terms of the Superior Court above mentioned, 
was even greater than that endured by parties 
to causes of divorce at the above-mentioned 
terms cf the Supreme Court. It is high time 
these Courts were required to sit at Lowell for 
the transaction of such business as belongs to 
the people in that large region of which Lowell 
is the natural centre. Transfer Cambridge to 
Suffolk, and you can cure this evil by making 
Lowell the sole shire town or city of the County. 



CIVIL LIST 



OF THE 



COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 



The functions of Register of Deeds, 
originally called "Recorder for Sales of Lands 
and Mortgages," were originally combined with 
those now performed by Registers of Probate, 
and by the Clerks of the County Courts : and 
to find the record of any particular fact 
during the early years of the County, one may 
now have to examine the books in these three 
different offices. 

According to Massachusetts Colony Rec- 
ords,* Thomas Danforth, (afterwards Assistant 
and Deputy Governor,) was appointed by the 
General Court as Recorder for Sales of Lands 
and Mortgages in Middlesex, May 26, 1652. 
♦Compare volume 3, p. 276, with volume 4, p. 90. 



104 CIVIL LIST OF THE 

But the first certificate on the records reads, 
"Recorded by me, Thomas Danforth ; Recorded 
ye 20th of ye 6th mo. 165 1."* 

REGISTERS OF DEEDS. 

The following are the names of Mr. Dan- 
forth's successors, with the dates of the first 
certificates signed by them. 

Lawrence Hammond July 27, 1686. 

Samuel Phipps April 10, 1693. 

Francis Foxcroft April 14, 1721. 

John Foxcroft . March 22, 1766. 

Ebenezer Bridge April 3, 1776. 

Thadeus Mason March 31, 1781. 

William Winthrop December 28, 1784. 

Samuel Bartlett June 12, 1795. 

William F. Stone September 13, 1821, 

Caleb Hayden April 1, 1846. 

Mr. Hayden died April 6, 1865, and was 
succeeded by Charles B. Stevens, the present 
incumbent. The records of this office now fill 
1477 volumes. 

In 1855, a special registry was established 
for the city of Lowell and the towns of Northern 
Middlesex. The Registers for this Northern 

♦Although the letter y was used as the equivalent of 
th, the words in which it was so used were always pro- 
nounced in the usual way. "Ye" was pronounced as 
"the," "yra" as "them," etc. 



COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 105 

District have been — ^A. B. Wright, 1855 ; Itha- 
mar A. Beard, 1868, and Joseph P. Thompson, 
1874. These records now fill 130 volumes. 

JUDGES OF PROBATE. 



James Russell, 


appointed June 18, 


1692.* 


John Leverett, 


it 


October 23, 


I702. ,r ' 


Francis Foxcroft, 


<< 


July 8, 


1708.* 


Jonathan Remington, " 


September 30, 


1725.* 


Samuel Danforth, 


n 


December 20, 


1745." 


John Winthrop, 


if 


September 6, 


1775. 


Oliver Prescott, 


it 




1779. 


James Prescott,f 


It 


February 7, 


1805. 


Samuel P. P. Fay, 


it 


May 9, 


1821. 


W. A. Richardson, 


it 


April 7, 


1856. 



The office of Judge of Probate was super- 
seded, in 1858, by that of Judge of Probate and 
Insolvency. William A. Richardson was ap- 
pointed to the latter office July 1, 1858. He 
resigned, and was succeeded by George M. 
Brooks, the present incumbent, May (3, 1872. 

*Theseflve dates are "old style." 

See Volume 193, General Records, in the Registry 
of Probate, pp. 1-5. 

fHe was removed from office in 1821 by impeachment 
for acts which, though proper to be prohibited by law in 
a Judge of Probate, involved no moral turpitude. Pres- 
cott was Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas 
from June 3rd, 1805, until that Court was abolished 
in 1811. 



io6 



CIVIL LIST OF THE 



REGISTERS OF PROBATE. 

Samuel Phipps, appointed June 18, 1692. 



Thomas Swan, 
Nicholas Fessenden, 
Daniel Foxcroft, 
Thomas Foxcroft, 
Francis Foxcroft,* 
Samuel Danforth,f 
Andrew Boardman, 
Wm. Kneeland, 
James Winthrop, 
James Foster, 
Isaac Fiske, 
Alonzo V. Lynde, 
Alfred A. Prescott, 



October 23, 1702. 
' September 15, 1705. 
' December 28, 1709. 
1 December 9, 171 5. 
July 3, 1729. 
July 9, 1 73 1. 
December 20, 1745. 
May 29, 1769 
September 6, 1775. 
May 26, 181 7. 
October 29, 1817. 
July 1, 1851. 
March 10, 1853. 



Joseph H. Tyler was elected Register of 
Probate and Insolvency, November 10, 1858, 
and reelected in 1863, 1868, and 1873, for 
the term of five years. 

ASSISTANT REGISTERS. 

The office of Assistant Register of Probate 
and Insolvency, created in 1858, has been filled 
as follows : — By Isaac F. Jones from January 1, 
1859, till his death July 13, 1873 ; by 
Charles F. Brooks, from July 14, 1873, to Jan- 

*Soq of the Judge of that name. 
fAfterwards Judge of Probate. 



COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 107 

uary 21, 1874; and from thence by Samuel H. 
Folsom, the present incumbent. 



SHERIFFS. 




Timothy Phillips, 


appointed May 27, 


1692. 


Samuel Gookin, 


<< 


October 23, 


1702. 


Edmund Goffe, 


<< 


December 9, 


1715. 


Samuel Gookin, 


<< 


December 12, 


1728. 


Samuel Dummer, 


<< 


September 27, 


1729, 


Richard Foster, 


t< 


July 9, 


I73I- 


Richard Foster, 


«< 


November 20, 


1761. 


David Phips, 


<« 


March 7, 


1764. 


Loammi Baldwin, 


<< 




1780. 


Joseph Hosmer, 


i< 




1794. 


William Hildreth, 


<t 




1808. 


Nathaniel Austin, 


<< 




1813. 


Benjamin F. Varnum, " 




1831. 


Samuel Chandler, 


<« 




1 841. 


Fisher A. Hildreth, 


11 




1852. 


John S. Keyes, 


11 




1854. 


Charles Kimball, 


11 




i860. 


COUNTY 


TREASURERS, 




Ebenezer Bridge, 


appointed 


1787. 


John L. Tuttle, 


" 




1808. 


John Keyes, 


11 




1 8 14. 


Stedman Buttrick, 


" 




1838. 


Amos Stone, 


« 4 




1855. 



108 CIVIL LIST OF THE 

CLERKS OF COURTS. 

Prior to 1790, Thadeus Mason held the 
office of Clerk of the Courts of Common Pleas 
and Quarter Sessions, together with the office 
of Register of Deeds. But in that year, these 
offices were wisely separated. Since then the 
Clerks of Courts have been as follows : — 
Abraham Biglow, ... - 1790 
Elias Phinney, - 1832 

Seth Ames, 1850 

John O. A Griffin, - - - 1859 

James Dana, - *859 

Benjamin F. Ham, - i860 

Theodore C. Hurd, - - - - 1871 

In 1863, Marshall Preston, who had filled 
the office of Assistant Clerk ever since it was 
created, resigned, and John J. Sawyer succeed- 
ed him. John L. Ambrose was added as Sec- 
ond Assistant Clerk in 1874. 

DISTRICT ATTORNEYS. 

The office of prosecuting attorney is of 
modern origin. Why a public defender was 
not provided at the same time, it is dificult to 
understand. The Law, it is said, favors the 
accused ; and there would seem to be even 
stronger reasons for the employment of a pub- 
lic defender, than for the employment of an 



COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX. 109 

official prosecutor. It was, (naturally enough,) 
not without considerable opposition that the 
latter office became a fixed part of our judicial 
machinery. 

On October 7th, 1807, Samuel Dana was 
appointed Attorney for the State in Middlesex, 
and he resigned October 14th, 181 1, to take the 
place of Chief Justice of the Circuit Court of 
Common Pleas, then ^newly established in lieu 
of the old Court of Common Pleas. 

The successors of Mr. Dana have been 
as follows : — 

Timothy Fuller, - - - 181 1. 

Asahel Stearns, - - - - 18 13. 

Asahel Huntington, - 1830. 

Albert H. Nelson, - - - - 1845. 

Charles R. Train,* - 1848. 

Asa W. Farr, - - - - 185 1. 

Charles R. Train,* - - - 1853. 

IsaacS. Morse, - 1855. 

John B. Goodrich, - 1872. 

George Stevens, - 1874. 

The Province ol Massachusetts had no 
sooner become a State than a reorganization 
took place in its judiciary. The Court of Com- 

*Train was twice removed from this office : first by 
Governor Boutwell ; and afterwards (having been reap- 
pointed by Governor Washburn) by Governor Gardner. 



no CIVIL LIST OF THE 

mon Pleas was deprived of its criminal juris- 
diction in 1782, was reconstructed in 181 1, and 
again in 1821 and finally superseded in 1859 by 
the Superior Court. 

The General Sessions of the Peace, of 
which, from 1782 to 18 11, all the Justices of 
the Peace in the County were members , exer- 
cised the criminal jurisdiction previously be- 
longing to the Common Pleas, as well as the 
functions now performed by the County Com- 
missioners. It was reconstructed in 181 1, when 
Joseph P>. Varnum of Dracut became its Chief 
Justice,* with four Associate Justices. Its 
criminal jurisdiction was taken from it in 1821 ; 
and in 1828 it was superseded by the County 
Commissioners, which board, it is to be hoped, 
is destined, at no distant day, to be abolished in 
its turn. 

*He was succeeded in 1819 by Joseph Locke, after 
wards Judge of the Police Court of Lowell. 



ADVERTISEMENTS. 



PRINTING! 

Local Histories, Historical Sermons, Orations 
and Addresses, Town Reports, Books and Pamphlets, 
of all kinds, are printed by the 

T^er^kllow rfiqtir^ Co, 
12 MIDDLE ST., LOWELL, 

In the best style and at moderate prices. Also, 
Commercial and Financial Printing of every kind, 
Lawyers' Briefs, Blanks, and Legal Documents of 
every description. 

CHARLES COWLEY, 
COUNSELLOR AT LAW, 

12 MIDDLE ST., LOWELL. 



1 1 8 AD VER TISEMENTS. 





Including Pensions for all surviving sol- 
diers of the War of 1812, or their Widows, 
Pensions for soldiers disabled in the War of 
the Rebellion, Pensions for the Widows of 
Soldiers who died in the service, Bounties, 
Additional Bounties, Arrears of Pay, Prize 
Money, etc., etc., collected at the Army and 
Navy Claims Agency, 

NO, 12 MIDDLE STREET, 
LOWELL, MA.SS. 

THE LOWELL BOILER WORKS, 

Which, for many years, were located on 
Button Street, have been removed to Waldo 
Street, on the Framingham Railroad, under 
the management of the subscriber. 

New and second-hand Boilers, Heaters, 
Shells, Flues, Tubes, etc., built, bought, sold or 
exchanged on liberal terms. 

Address,— JOHN COWLEY, 
]S[o. ITS L^wreqce £ti'eet, Lowell, JVla^. 



AD VER TISEMENTS. 1 1 9 

HISTORY Of MIDDLESEX COUNT!. 

BY 

§A5¥9UEL ADAMS DRAKE. 

If a sufficient number of subscribers are obtained to 
guarantee the publication without loss, we propose to 
issue at an early day, A History of Middlesex County, 
from the earliest times to the present day. It will con- 
tain a general history of the county from the first set- 
tlement, and will show the rise, growth, and progress of 
its Religious, Educational, Agricultural and Manufactur- 
ing interests ; its participation in the stirring scenes at 
the outbreak of the Revolution, and its literary and 
intellectual life. 

The work will also .contain a carefully prepared epito- 
me of the History of every Town in the County, 
compiled from original sources by the best informed 
persons, who have made an especial study of local history ; 
the whole to be under the supervision of Mr. Drake. The 
Town Histories will form au especially valuable feature 
of the work. 

The work will be published in two large royal octavo 
volumes, of about 500 double column pages each. The 
type will be clear long primer size. It will be printed on 
fine tiuted paper at the celebrated University Press, of 
Cambridge, and will contain many fine illustrations eu- 
graved on wood and steel, and a full and carefully 
prepared index. 

Price, Cloth, Bevelled, £7.60 per volume. 
Half Morocco, Marbled Edges, $10.00 per vol. 

Estes& Lauriat, 301 Washington St. Boston. 



120 ADVERTISEMENT. 

IN" PRESS. 

"TWO MONTHS 

IN 

LOWELL JAIL 

FOR 

WANT OF BAIL." 

BY NATHANIEL ALLEN. 

Containing the Experiences of an Inno- 
cent Man who was falsely accused of setting 
Fire to the Elevator Building in Lowell, January 
20th, 1878, and held to bail by Judge Crosby 
upon the testimony of perjured witnesses : 
with Sketches of the Jail, the Jailer, and the 
Jail-Birds. 

The Author is not content to tell the Story 
of his own Wrongs merely, but he seeks the 
Reformation of the entire Jail System. 



A D VER TISEMENTS. 1 2 1 

ZION'S WATCHMAN 

Is the title of a new evangelical undenomina- 
tional monthly just started in Lowell by the 
Rev. C. E. Preston. It is printed by the 
Penhallow Printing Company in the usual 
handsome style of that establishment. It is 
long since Middlesex County could boast of a 
religious journal, and Zion's Watchman promises 
to be of historical as well as of religious interest. 
Parish histories are to be one feature of it. 

Office, 342 Middlesex St. Lowell. 

Terms, 50 cents per annum. 

BOILERS FOR SALE. 

One new 4 feet, horizontal cylinder boiler 
16 1-2 feet long, with 50 tubes ; one new 24 
inch upright boiler, 5 feet long, with 24 tubes ; 
one 30 inch, upright boiler, 7 feet long, with 35 
new tubes ; one 24 inch boiler, 10 feet long, with 
cast-iron heads ; one 30 inch fire box boiler, 8 
feet long, with 26 tubes. 

Also, two 7 feet boiler shells, one 25, the 
other 17 feet long Also, one 30 inch heater, 8 
feet long. Also, one large soap kettle, and 
two jacket kettles. Also, one double screw 
press, with 13 plates. Address John Cowley, 
178 Lawrence Street, Lowell, Mass. 



122 ADVERTISEMENTS. 



12 MIDDLE STREET, LOWELL, MASS. 

Benjamin H. Penhallow, the founder of 
this establishment, was born in Portsmouth, 
and was the descendant in the fourth generation 
from Samuel Penhallow who was born in Corn- 
wall, England, in 1665, who immigrated to 
Charlestown, Mass., in 1686 ; who afterwards set- 
tled in Portsmouth, N. H.; who held the office 
of Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Judi- 
cature and other conspicuous public trusts, and 
who died in 1726. In the same year in which 
he died, his "History of the Wars of New Eng- 
land with the Eastern Indians," was published. 
It was republished in 1824, in the first volume 
of the N. H. Historical Collections, with a 
memoir of Judge Penhallow. 

Several of the early years of Mr. Penhallow's 
life were spent in the Sandwich Islands, and he 
established the first printing office in that 
Kingdom. In 1846, when thirty years old, he 
founded the Penhallow Printing Establish- 
ment in Lowell, which his skill and industry 
raised to a high place among the Book and Job 
Offices of New England. 

*For the history and genealogy of the Penhallow 
Family see X. E. Historical and Genealogical Register, 
January 1878. pp. 21-35. 



NEW COUNTY PUBLICATIONS. 



Leaves from a Lawyer's Life Afloat 
and Ashore. By Charles Cowley. [In press.] 

Among the many matters touched upon, more or 
less fully, in this book, are the Southern Blockade ; 
Lord Nelson; Steamships; the Blockade-Runners; our 
Blockading Fleets in general ; the South Atlantic 
Blockading Squadron in particular ; Admiral Dupont ; 
Admiral Dahlgren ; Operations under their commands 
respectively ; — Battle of Port Royal ; Capture of the 
Sea Islands ; Captain Small ; Battle of Sooessionville ; 
General Stevens ; General Hawley ; General Pember- 
ton ; Colonel Lamar ; Bombardment of Fort Pulaski ; 
Capture of the Ram Atlanta; Commodore Ingraham's 
attempt to raise the Blockade of Charleston ; — 
General Vogdes; Occupation of Folly Island; Battle 
between Dupont's Iron-Clads and the forts at Charles- 
ton ; Storming of Fort Wagner ; General Strong ; 
Bombardment of Fort Sumter ; Life in the Monitors ; 
the Naval Pickets ; Legal Questions growing out of 
the Blockade ; Attempt to capture Fort Johnson, 
(which has not hitherto found a place in history.) 



124 NEW COUNTY PUBLICATIONS. 

When the Army of General Sherman had "sung 
the chorus from Atlanta to the Sea," the Fleet of 
Admiral Dahlgren cooperated with him in various 
movements. These are recorded in this book, as well 
as the operations of the Fleet Brigade during the 
Broad River Expedition; the Battles of Honey Hill 
and Boyd's Neck ; the capture of Savannah, Charles- 
ton, etc. Life in the Charleston Race-Course Prison 
is described ; General Hardee ; Senator Wilson at the 
graves of Calhoun and Hayne ; the Freedmen ; the 
Southern People ; and many points are discussed 
touching the Law of Naval Courts-Martial. 

Equally interesting are the "Leaves" from the 
author's life ashore, since the close of the War. He 
discusses Points in the Law of Patents ; Marriage ; 
Divorce; Divorce Bureaux, their Operators, aud their 
Victims ; Alimony ; Libel and Privilege, and gives 
various Notable Cases. 

Some, perhaps, will find more interesting mat- 
ter in his Notes of Foreign Travel, especially those 
outside of the usual track of European tourists, in the 
Valley of the Severn, etc. 

History of Cambridge. By Lucius R. Paige. 
An admirable history of the intended capital of 
Massachusetts, excellently arranged, and written with 
candor and impartiality. The sixteenth chapter con- 
tains interesting information touching the County 
Buildings in Cambridge. The Rev. Dr. Paige has 
made excellent use of the County records, as well a 
of the Colony and State records. The claim of 



NEW COUNTY PUBLICA TIONS. 125 

Mayor Green, which is countenanced by Dr. Pai^e, 
that Cambridge introduced into this State the system 
of graded schools, in lieu of the district system, will 
not stand the test of chronology. Judge Cowley 
says, Lowell adopted this system, September 3rd, 
1832. Dr. Paige says, Cambridge adopted it on 
October 6, 1834. Compare Cowley's History of 
Lowell, pp. 104-105, with Paige's History of Cam- 
bridge, p. 377. 

Lowell Historical Collections. [In Press.] 
The Old .Residents' Historical Society have 
published three numbers of their Collections. The 
fourth number will complete a volume. It is much 
to be wished that this Society, now so firmlj' estab- 
lished, would enlarge the sphere of its usefulness, 
and become a County Society ; or, at least, admit to 
membership ladies and gentlemen of historical pur- 
suits or tastes, without requiring residence for a 
quarter of a century in Lowell. 

History of Dunstable. By Rev. Elias 
Nason. 
This volume, which treats of the Massachusetts 
Dunstable, is a worthy companion for Fox's History 
of the New Hampshire town of the same name. The 
author's various works have established for him a 
bright reputation as a writer ; but at page 56, we ob- 
serve, he has fallen into error. The tragic death of 
Whitney, which he places "about'' 1734, occurred full 
thirty years later, during the French and Indian War. 



1 26 NE W COUNTY PUBLIC A TIONS. 

History of Billerica. By Rev. Henry A. 
Hazen. [In Press.] 

This book will be warmly welcomed by all who 
are interested in that ancient town — the mother of 
Tewksbury, ( whose history the book includes, ) and 
grand-mother of Lowell. Will no one undertake a 
similar labor of love for Chelmsford ? or for Dracut ? 

Browne's Divorce and its Consequences- 
Thoroughly Revised and greatly Enlarged 
By Charles Cowley. 

A lady, who is herself an excellent writer, says : 
"Browne's Divorce has thrilled me while reading it, 
with alternate emotions of exquisite pleasure and of 
real pain. I once heard Mr. Cowley make what is 
called the closing argument in a case where a man 
was charged by a woman with an indelicate as- 
sault Mr. Sweetser had made a powerful appeal for 
the defendant, and had torn the character of the un- 
fortunate plaintiff to tatters. It seemed a hard task 
indeed to reply ; but Mr. Cowley proved more than 
a match for his antagonist. He thoroughly dissected 
the defendant in a manner which, merciless though it 
was, was felt to be just. 

Heaven spare me from such a dissecting knife. 
It is no wonder that Browne gave up the ghost when 
this extinguishing delineation of his domestic life 
came before the world. The style is that of a master. 
There are passages worthy of Gibbon; there are others 
that resemble Macaulay ; and there are spurts of wild 
rollicking fun, that make you roar as you read. 



NE W COUNTY PUBLIC A TIONS. 127 

Withal, now and then, there are touches of tender- 
ness that often compel tears. Is it possible that a 
writer of such refined sensibility deliberately polluted 
his bright, sparkling pages with a lascivious acrostic? 
Or was the Cubas sonnet inserted merely to show 
Browne's utter rotteness ? Or, lastly, did it slip into 
the book without the author's discovering its half- 
concealed impurity?* 

It reminds me, however, of Van Laun's criti- 
cism of Balzac : 'If we are shocked at times, it is by 
the revelation of the truth, not by the wanton crea- 
tion of the writer ; if we are disgusted, it is by our- 
selves or by human nature !' 

Had the weird and wonderful Balzac read Judge 
Cowley's thrilling narrative, it would doubtless have 
presented to his vivid imagination the same mournful 
procession of ideas which, as he tells us, always filled 
his mind at the word Adultery : — 'Tears, shame, 
hatred, terror, secret crimes, bloody wars, families 
without a head, were personified before me, and 
started up suddenly as I read the sacramental word, 
Adultery.' " 

History of Lexington. By Charles Hudson. 

"It is a town history ; written for the town ; 

published by the town. It is the plea of the town ; 

in behalf of the town, in matters in which the town 

*It was even thus. As soon as the wantonness of this 
sonnet was discovered, it was expunged. All the later 
editions are free from it. 



128 NEW COUNTY PUBLICA TIONS. 

is greatly concerned. What the town does not claim 
in this volume, therefore, cannot reasonably be claim- 
ed for the town hereafter." 

So says Mr. Dawson, who pronounces it one of 
the very best of town histories. With his usual pas- 
sion for criticism, referring to the events of April 19, 
1775, Mr. Dawson ironically commends the effort of 
Mr. Hudson "to show that although his townsmen, 
after their blustering show of resistance, actually ran 
away, ingloriously, they did not do so without firing 
a single shot — the necessity of all which is apparent, 
since that could not be called a Battle in which all 
the firing was done by one of the parties and all the 
running by the other." 

The same historical iconoclast declares that the 
Patriots at Lexington were "very much such a party 
as those with which the Chinese were wont to oppose 
the progress of the allies, when they, too, assembled 
by the way-side, sounded their horns, beat their gongs, 
and — ran away." 

Semi-Centennial Report of the Overseers 
of the Poor of Lowell. 

This valuable collection of historical, statistical 
and legal matter in relation to the city farm, alms- 
house, work-house, reform school, insane hospital, and 
the care of the poor in Lowell, is the first report ever 
issued by this board. The changes in the organiza- 
tion of this important body and the names of all its 
members, are included. Animal reports are now 
issued. That for 1877 was prepared by Dr. Allen, 



NE IV CO UNT\ T PL 'BLICA TIONS. 1 29 

whose long experience on the Board of State Charities 
give weight to his suggestions. That for 1876 was 
written by Judge Charles Cowley, who prepared this 
semi-centennial report, and who also initiated the 
salutary change in the organization of this board, 
which was effected by the Revised Charter of Lowell, 
and which has since been followed in other cities. 

History of Marlborough. By Chas. Hudson. 

The author's contributions to the history of his 
native town, Marlborough, and his adopted town, 
Lexington, as well as of the town of Hudson, which 
honored itself no less than him by taking his name, 
deserves the thanks of all who are interested in 
local history. 

Mr. Hudson devotes much, hut not too much 
space to the history of the Indian town which Eliot 
and Gookin established in Marlborough, and rather 
extenuates the conduct of the white settlers towards 
what the apostle Eliot called "the ruins of the red 
men" who were their neighbors ; but we think the 
best way for the historian is to relate facts just as 
they occurred. History is not eulogy. The histo- 
rian is a judge, and not an advocate. 

As there never were any "Natick and Wamesit 
tribes" Mr. Hudson's statement, (page 53) that "the 
Indians at Marlborough were a branch" of those 
tribes, requires correction. If he means that they 
were a branch of the Pawtucket tribe, which ren- 
dezvoused where Lowell now stands, we should like 
to see the evidence of it. 



130 NEW COUNTY PUBLICATIONS. 

Memoir of Ephraim Heald. By Ephraim 

Brown. [In Press.] 

The career of Major Heald was as full of wild 
adventure and of peril as that of Daniel Boone or 
that of Colonel Crocket; and he was morally far 
superior lo either of them All that was striking, 
perilous, romantic, or heroic in Middlesex County life 
in primitive times, is illustrated abundantly in him. 
As scout, trapper, hunter and pioneer, he had more 
varied and stranger experiences than any other fron- 
tiersman whose life has been recorded. 

The author is the Major's grandson ; and in his 
own career as an inventor and otherwise, he has 
displayed ingenuity equal to that which his grand- 
sire exhibited in his contests with Indians, moose, 
bears, and panthers. 

The Wrong Lawyer Disbarred ; or Fraud 
in the Courts Exposed. By Causidicus. 

Ten years ago, John D. Howe was disbarred. 
About the same time, Samuel J. Randall was also 
disbarred. Heniy C. Hutchins's conduct in connec- 
tion with the Browne Divorce has for some time 
been under consideration by the Judges of the Sup- 
reme Court. Thus far he has been spared ; but 
John F. Dearington, whose ease was brought before 
the Court "on the same day'* with that of Hutch- 
ins, was disbarred; and this pamphlet states the 
causes. The petition of George C. Browne, which 
is here printed in full, is one of painful interest. 



NE W CO UNTY P UBLICA TIONS. 1 3 1 

Causidicus argues that, "compared with the 
mal-practices of Dearington, the offence of Hutch- 
ins was as a mountain to a mole hill." But al- 
though Middlesex County, especially Newton, was 
formerly the theatre of the Browne family's pranks, the 
Suffolk Bar Association, (if it has any higher pur- 
pose than eating and drinking) would seem to be 
the body that ought to move upon Mr. Hutchins's 
works. Who is Causidicus? People who read the 
Rev. B. F. Clark's pamphlets on the controversy 
between George F. Farley, Asahel Huntington and 
Samuel Parker, have surmized that Mr. Clark is 
Causidicus ; but he is not. 

Cyclopedia of Marriage and Divorce : 
Combining Law, History, Poetry, and 
Biography. By Charles Cowley. [In Press.] 

Designed to embody the Elements of Law, the 
Romance of History, the Gems of Biography, and 
the Pearls of Poetry. In this Cyclopaedia as in 
human life, Tragedy is interwoven with Comedy ; 
blood and tears, with mirth and joy. 

History of Lowell. By Charles Cowley. 
Second Revised Edition. Illustrat 

Town histories are of the most useful of literary 
productions, though they seldom bring to their au- 
thors much fame, or any emolument. Mr. Cowley's 
labors are of an exceptional character, as his very 
entertaining volume has proved an entire success, 
and gained for him an enviable position among our 
best known writers. This is in part due to the good 



1 32 NEW COUNTY PUBLIC A TIONS. 

fortune that was his in having so fair a suhject upon 
which to labor. Lowell has an unparalleled place in 
the history of New England's larger communities. 
The singularity of her origin, marking as it does 
the opening of a novel and a mighty form of Ameri- 
can industry : her rapid growth in numbers, wealth, 
and reputation, so that her name quickly became 
known to remote peoples, who knew hardly more of 
America than that it contained Lowell ; the activity, 
the intelligence, and boldness of her population, 
embracing, as it does, almost every form of mental 
and physical power, because conscripted from numer- 
ous localities ; the political weight of her leading 
men of all parties, and their daring action at im- 
portant crisis ; the enlightened and practical patriot- 
ism of her people during the late war ; — all these 
things, and others that might be mentioned, combine 
to make of Lowell one of the most interesting 
subjects on which a man of good talents could wish 
to concentrate his time and attention. 

Such a man is Mr. Cowley, and it is the sim- 
plest justice to say, that h'is history of the place of 
his residence owes much of its unquestioned excel- 
lence to his capacity to treat of public affairs in a 
vigorous and vivacious manner. His style is clear 
and strong. He has labored most industriously 
and honestly to bring together, within reasonable 
compass, every thing that can illumine the history 
of the opulent and energetic community of which 
he writes, and he places that history before his 
readers in a very attractive manner. 



NEW COUNTY PUBLIC A TIONS. 133 

Such .another collection of facts in illustration 
of the origin, growth, and character of what is in 
its way a model city, it would he impossible to find. 
Not a fact of importance is omitted, and there is a 
great deal told that will be of the first usefulness to 
the historian of modern Massachusetts, if such an his- 
torian she is ever to have. There is much that 
relates to individuals, men of note, — as Kirk Boott, 
Dr. Ayer, Gen. Butler, Mr. Warland, W. S. Bobin- 
son, "Warrington," the Abbotts, George Well man, 
Thomas Hopkinson, General Schouler, John P. 
Bobinson, B. W. Ball, and others, and this sort of 
reading is much liked. Lowell's part in the civil war, 
which does her the utmost honor, is faithfully and min- 
utely told. He can speak with decided effect on this 
branch of his subject, as he served himself, and had 
the honor of being wounded in one of those bitter 
and bloody engagements which took place near 
Charleston in the last year of the war, in which so 
many good lives and so many useful limbs were 
sacrificed to little purpose. — Hon. Charles C. Haze- 
well, in the Boston Traveller. 

The Case of Charles Cowley vs Charles 
R. Train, William F. Slocum and Law- 
rence McLaughlan. 

This remarkable case has been printed for the 
use of the Legislature, the Suffolk Bar Association 
and the Supreme Judicial Court, in which it is now 
pending. It is painful enough to read that the At- 
torney-General of Louisiana has been indicted for 



134 NEW CO UNTY P UBLICA TIONS. 

murder in his own Parish. It is more painful to 
see the Attorney-General of Massachusetts accused 
of the crimes which are here alleged against him 
and William F. Slocum. Train was once District 
Attorney for Middlesex. He has also represented 
this County in the General Court and in Congress. 
Slocum was once Trial Justice at Newton. He was 
one of those magistrates who pocketed the moneys 
paid to them for fines and forfeited recognizances 
and whose "irregularities" were exposed hy the 
Legislative Committee on County Frauds, 

The public have an interest in it for the further 
reason, that it is contended in behalf of Train 
and Slocum, that, as the attorneys of the Rev # 
Joseph B. Clark, they were privileged to suborn 
Minon, Smith, McLaughlan and other witnesses 
to commit perjury. 

Famous Divorces of all Ages. By Charles 
Cowley. 

Divorces are morally, if not legally, the most 
interesting branch of Criminal Jurisprudence. 

'•The Annals of Criminal Jurisprudence," saj T s 
Edmund Burke, "exhibit human nature in a variety 
of positions, at once the most striking, interesting, 
and affecting. They present tragedies of real life, 
often heightened in their effect by the grossness of 
the injustice, and the malignity of the prejudices, 
which accompanied them. At the same time real 
culprits, as original characters, stand forward on the 
canvas of humanity as prominent objects for our 



NE W CO UNTY P UBLICA TIONS. i 



53 



special study. I have often wondered that the English 
language contains no book like the Causes Cel- 
ebres of the French, particularly as the openness of 
our proceedings renders the records more certain and 
accessible, while our public history and domestic con- 
flicts have afforded so many splendid examples of the 
unfortunate aud the guilty. Such a collection, drawn 
from our own national sources, and varied by refer- 
ences to cases of the continental nations, would 
exhibit rnadi as he is in action and principle, and 
not as he is usually drawn by poets and speculative 
philosophers." 

The Pilgrim Fathers. Oration delivered 
before the City Council and Citizens of Low- 
ell, December 22, 1876. By Hon. John 
A Goodwin. 

This oration contains many facts of Pilgrim history 
which could not be found elsewhere, without referring to 
perhaps a dozen authors, each differing more or less 
from all the others ; and some facts that could be found 
nowhere else. It is monumental to the author, and credit- 
able to his associates in the City Council, at whose invi- 
tation it was spoken. 

Four historic visits were made to Plymouth, prior to 
the coming of the Pilgrims, which Mr. Goodwin does not 
mention. They were made as follows : — by Gosnold in 
1602; by Pring in 1603; by Champlain in 1601; and by 
Captain John Smith in 1614 

History of Woburn. By Samuel Sewall. 

The venerable author carefully narrates the history of 

one of the most important towns in Middlesex County 

from 1640 to 1860. The town of Burlington being an 



1 36 NE W COUNTY PUBLIC A TIONS. 

off-shoot of Woburn, her history is included it that of her 
municipal mother. Mr. Dawsou has noticed, in his His- 
torical Magazine, that Edward Johnson, one of the 
founders of this town, has been strangely confounded 
with an illiterate carpenter who, also, is said to have 
settled in "Woburn, about 1G37 ; as well as with a third 
person of that name, a resident of another Colony, who 
very probably wrote The Wonder-working Providence. 
And he says, "There is no more reliable evidence of the 
truth of this portion of the narrative than there is of the 
truth of Sinbad the Sailor." 

Indian and Pioneer Memories of the 
Region of Lowell. By Charles Cowley. 

The work is really the history of Lowell before Low- 
ell was, and shows how much of interesting matter there 
is to be told of that important section of country ere cot- 
ton had been ginned at the South, or cottons manufac- 
tured at the North. We are glad to see that Mr. Cowley 
does justice to the Indians, a race vilely used by the 
whites, who generally libel those whom they trample up- 
on or destroy. Often rising to eloquence, just in its 
opinions, and abounding with facts not easily to be ob- 
tained, Mr. Cowley's pamphlet deserves high praise; and 
we should think it might be usefully extended into a larger 
and more elaborate work. — Boston Traveller. 

Semi-Centennial Celebration in Lowell. 
The pamphlet entitled, "Proceedings in the City of 
Lowell at the Semi-Centennial Celebration of the Incor- 
poration of the Town of Lowell, March 1, 1876," contains 
materials of great value to the student of local history 
and biography. It was one of the first of the series of 
historic documents printed by the Penhallow Printing 
Company under its present organization. That portion of 
General Butler's oration (pages 37-41) in which he des- 



NEW COUNTY PUBLIC A TWNS. 137 

cribes Lowell as he first saw it, from the summit of Chris- 
tian Hill, in 1828, will be read with a keener interest hun- 
dreds of years hence than it is now. It is as true to life 
as is the outline of himself — << a slender boy of less than 
ten years, with a foxskin cap c'osely drawn over his ears, 
linsey-woolsey jacket tightly buttoned to his throat." 

It is to be regretted that General Butler could not 
spare the time for a careful revision of this oration. 
Not a line of it was written with a pen ; but the words 
were dictated to his type-writer as he paced his room, 
when the beloved companion of his life was approaching 
her end, and when he was never more burdened with pub- 
lic and private labors and cares. It was his intention 
that the fifth paragraph on page 37, should read thus : — 

"To the left, a group of huts, part with mud walls 
roofed with slabs, with here and there a small white 
frame house near them, stood at a place called the 'Acre' 
(which afterwards became the subject of an almost inter- 
minable litigation) surrounding the spot where now the 
magnificent edifice of the first Catholic Church rears its 
illuminated cross for the adoration of its worshippers." 
Maritime International Law. By John 

A. Dahlgren, late Rear Admiral, U. S. 

Navy. Edited by Charles Cowley, of the 

Massachusetts Bar, formerly Judge- Advocate 

on the Staff of the Author. 
Tnese notes were left in an incomplete state, but they 
have furnished the basis for a very excellent practical 
treatise upon those parts of international law that naval 
officers have to do with. The work of the editor, who 
has given the treatise its finishing touches, is thoroughly 
well done, aud we know no volume in which the topics 
mentioned are more carefully considered. These topics 
are : Law of Blockade ; Contraband of War ; Visitation 
and Search ; Duties of Naval Commanders on Foreign 
Stations. — Albany Law Journal. 



i sS NE W COUNTY PUBLIC A TIONS. 

A Crosby Family. By Hon. Nathan Crosby. 
An admirably monograph on an old Middlesex 
County family of excellent repute. Another Lowell 
gentleman, Mr James S. Russell, lias in preparation a 
genealogy of the Russell and Potter families. 

The Dialogues of Plato with Socrates 
and Crito. Literally Translated by John 
Curran-Keegan. [In Press.] 

These two dialogues — one on Friendship, the other 
on Citizenship — have borne a high reputation for two and 
twenty centuries, and have been repeatedly translated by 
"able hands." 

Mr. Keegau is a grandson of the famous Irish orator, 
John Philpot Curran, and graduated with honors at 
Trinity College in his native city, (Dublin,) in the class 
of 1877. He is now preparing for the Middlesex Bar, 
where he will give a good account of himself. 

The special merit of his translation of this classic is 
that it is literal, and peculiarly adapted to beginners in 
Greek. Lowell, which had the honor to publish the first 
American edition of Goethe's Faust, is about to present 
through the Penhallow Printing Company, the first 
American translation of Plato's most famous work. 

The Burning of the Convent. By Louisa 
Whitney. 
This is strictly a Middlesex County book, by a Mid- 
dlesex County Lady. The same tleet which brought to 
the British North American Colonies the Army of Count 
Rochambeau to aid in the War of Independence, also 
brought over a body of Irish Nuns, who had been educat- 
ed in French Convents, to keep a boarding school for the 
children of the more wealthy of the Colonists, the child- 
ren of Protestants being preferred. These Nuns finally 
established themselves iu a Convent on Mouut Benedict 



NE W COUNTY PUBLIC A TIONS. 1 39 

in Charlestown. Ou the night of August 11th, 1834, that 
Convent was destroyed by a mob, and the Author relates 
how it was done. 

The convent had stood fourteen years. In connection 
wi'h Mrs. Whitney's sprightly narrative, one should not 
fail to read Mr. Fronde's "Annals of an English Abbey," 
in the third series of his Short Studies on Great Subjects. 
Eulogy of Hon. Tappan Wkntworth. By 
Nathan Crosby. 

Judge Crosby's affectionate tribute to the memory ot 
his friend is full in its details of his early life, but less so 
touching the incidents of his later career. The notorious 
ballot box frauds, by which William H. Loughlin was 
foisted into the seat in the House of Representatives, 
which unquestionably belonged to the subject of this 
well merited eulogy, might well have been adverted to 
by the learned Judge. But still, he may have been wise 
in studying "the things that make for peace." 

Mr. Wentworth was the legal adviser of Miss Rogers, 
when she made that public-spirited offer to the city of 
Lowell, of the gift of Fort Hill, which the short-sighted 
city government of that day rejected. It is unquestion- 
able, that the disgust excited in Mr. Wentworth's mind by 
the blindness of that blundering body, found expression 
in his will, in which Dartmouth College is magnificently 
remembered, and Lowell is remembered to be forgotten. 

It is to be hoped that, "in the sweet bye and bye," of 
which Moody and Sankey so often sing, (if not sooner.) 
Miss Rogers will renew her generous offer, and that the 
city will promptly accept it. Fort Hill should be made a 
Rogers Park, planted with noble trees, and laid out in 
beautiful walks. Its summit should be crowned with a 
bronze equestrian statue of General Butler as he appeared, 
on the grandest night of his eventful life, when he took 
possession of Federal Hill in Baltimore. 



140 NE W COUNTY PUBLIC A TIONS. 

History of Groton. By Samuel A. Green. 
Butler's History of Groton is so excellent a book, 
that none but a very learned, or a very presumptuous 
man, can be expected to add much to Butler's contribu- 
tions, or to correct his many errors. Dr. Green has 
given so many proofs of his unwearied industry, his ex- 
haustive researches, and his sound judgment, in matters 
of history, — notably, in his Centennial Oration at Groton, 
— that we look for a rich treat from him in this work. 

History of Concord. By Frederick Hudson. 

It is devoutly to be wished, that this work may 
shortly be published. It is true that Shattuck's History 
of Concord (which included Bedford, Acton, Lincoln, 
and Carlisle) is one of the very best local histories that 
have come down to us from the last generation. But no 
man like the late Mr. Hudson could travel the long path 
of old Concord's history without finding many new facts, 
and presenting many old facts in new and striking lights. 
besides enriching bis pages with many admirable reflec- 
tions and suggestions. 

We are happy to learn that the work was in a state 
nearly complete, when the terrible accident took place, by 
which the author lost his life. 

From 1G92 to 1859 Concord was a shire town of 
Middlesex, and regular sittings of the courts were held 
there. The first court house in Concord was built in 
1719; the second was built in 1794 and burned in 1849; 
the third, (now occupied by the Middlesex Mutual Fire 
Insurance Company,) was built in 1851. 

While the Courts were held at Concord, many memo- 
rable trials took place there — such as that of Job Shat- 
tuck, one of the leaders in Shay's Rebellion, in 1787; 
that of the rioters who burned the Ursuline Convent at 
Charlestown in 1835; that of the Phoenix Bank swindlers 
in is 12; and that of Samuel Parker in 1818. The only 



NE W CO UNTYP UBLICA TIONS. 1 4 1 

man ever put to death in Concord by sentence of the 
law. was a burglar named Smith who was haiured. at 
tbe commencement of the present century, by Sheriff 
Hosmer. 

Memoir of James C. Ayer. [In Press.] 

The Phrenological Journal has lately published a 
brief but excellent memoir of Nathan Allen, M. D., LL. D. 

The forthcoming volume of Lowell Historical Collec- 
tions will contain an autobiography of John O. Green, 
M. D., President of the Old Residents' Association. 

Dr. Ayer was never a practicing physician like Drs. 
Allen and Green; but the immense fortune which he 
accumulated, the world-wide business which his enter- 
prize built up, the radical reforms which he, more than 
any other man, effected, in the management of the great 
manufacturing corporations of Lowell, and indeed of all 
New England, and the prominence in which he stood 
(though in a private station) before the community for 
many years, — all call for the preparation and publication 
of some record of his active and eventful career. The 
malady from which he is now suffering, being probably 
incurable, his. name no longer appears in its accustomed 
place on the numerous manufacturing and banking corpo- 
rations in which he was a large proprietor, ami he has 
not been seen at any public assembly in Lowell since the 
celebration of the semi-ceutenuial anniversary of its 
incorporation, March 1, 1876. 

Except that his uncle, Mayor Cook, gave him fatherly 
counsel in the years of his boyhood after his own father 
died, and excepting a little help from his father-in-law, 
Senator Southwick, iu a critical period of his life, Dr. 
Ayer is the sole architect of his own fortune. In his later 
life, he has had able lieutenants, but they have been of his 
own training. Moreover, he has had none of the 
avenues opened to him, through which the common herd 



142 NEW COUNTY PUBLIC A TIONS. 

of public men pass to distinction. The doors of Con- 
gress, opened to hundreds of the most mediocre creatures 
that ever brayed, were closed to him ; though he would 
have won in the canvass of 1874, but for the discredit 
Into which his party had fallen by its blind and blunder- 
ing dealings with the South. 

The salutary measures of legislation touching the 
corporations, which were passed in consequence of the 
agitations started by him, were passed without his per- 
sonally entering the legislative halls. Lowell, which 
year after year, for thirty jears, sent her annual quota of 
hoodlums to the General Court, left the genius of Dr. 
Ayer to create its own opportunities ; and as one of the 
results of all this, his name is familiar in hundreds of 
cities where Lowell is known only as the place where 
Ayer's Almanac is printed, and Ayer's medicines prepared. 

The Wrong Member of the Middlesex Bar 
Convicted of Perjury. By Rev. B. F. 
Clark. 
This pamphlet, which first appeared in 1848, is about 
to be republished with a commentary on the case. The 
author gives pretty good reasons for the belief that the 
late George F. Farley should have been convicted of per- 
jury, instead of Samuel Parker, who, however, was finally 
acquitted. Rufus Choate, Albert H. Nelson, Edward 
Mellen, Asahel Huntington and Charles R. Train, all 
figured prominently, (some of them not at all creditably.) 
against Mr. Parker, and Franklin Dexter, John P. Robin- 
son, Charles Allen, and Benjamin F. Butler for him. It 
was one of the first cases in which Mr. Butler's genius 
shone conspicuously. The conviction of Judge Prescott 
<>n articles of impeachment, and the conviction of Mr. 
Parker on the trumped up charge of perjury, were the 
two greatest judicial outrages that have occurred in Mid- 
dlesex since the hanging of the witches. 



NE IV COUNTY PUBLIC A TIONS. 143 
Memoir of Joseph B. Varnum. 

It is almost sixty years since Joseph Bradley Varnum, 
by far the most conspicuous ligure in Northern Mid- 
dlesex during the Revolutionary and Post-Revolutionary 
periods of our history, was buried "under arms," on the 
banks of the Merrimack River. By the public at large, 
he is well nigh forgotten ; by historical students, he is 
known only as a member of either branch of Congress — 
as Speaker of the House, and as President pro tern of the 
Senate. But the effect ^of his impact on the polities 
of Massachusetts was very gi*eat for more than thirty 
years ; and in County affairs more particular^- he exercised 
a controlling power. As a Legislator, as a General and 
as a Judge, his life will well repa}- a perusal, and we 
are happy to know that one of the most competent of his 
numerous grandsons, now a citizen of Missouri, is en- 
gaged upon this work. 

Report of the Committee ox County Ex- 
penditures. 

This report, made three years ago, contains expo- 
sures of corruption and long-coniinued, systematic 
embezzlements, by numerous county officers, which are 
perfectly astounding. We have had Trial Justices as 
arrant knaves as the prisoners upon whom they i>a>sc<l 
judgment. Some of our District Attorneys and Clerks of 
Courts have been no better. This report was prepared 
by "W. C. Parker, Jr., of New Bedford, and the friends of 
"Retrenchment and Reform" can do no better than repub- 
lish this report, with appropriate notes and comments. 
Those officers who, while others were wallowing in corrup- 
tion, kept their own feet in the straight and narrow path 
of honor and probity, deserve the highest praise ; while 
the "corruptionists" should be dealt with unsparingly. 
In this respect, it is gratifying to know that the Police 
Court of Lowell has been a pattern court. All moneys 



1 44 NE IV CO UNTY P UBLICA TIONS. 

paid by defendants or their sureties for forfeited recog- 
nizances in this Court, have actually reached the County 
Treasury, and the Court is a source of income to the 
public, instead of being the public burden which too 
man}- similar tribunals are. 

The Unwigged Judge : or Debauchery upon 
the Bench. 

A well known member of the Middlesex Bar is cred- 
ited with having in preparation a story under this title, 
founded on certain incidents in the life of a libertine who 
was at one time Judge of the Police Court of Boston. 
The book will doubtless relate the attempt to extort from 
Vice- President Wilson the Consulate at Naples as "the 
price of peace" touching certain old scandals about him. 
This "operation'' is mentioned in a note to Cowley's 
"Famous Divorces of All Age-.' 

Other scenes there are, worthy of the pen of another 
Hawthorne — particularly that where the judge sentences 
to the House of Correction the frail CaVrie whom he has 
himself debauched and ruined ; and that where, upon 
an official visit to the Girls' Beform Schoolj the ermined 
scoundrel meets, face to face, his own little cast-away, 
foundling daughter. 

Life of Brigham Young. 

The late President of the Church of Jesus Christ of 
Latter Day Saints was unquestionably the most extra- 
ordinary man ever born in Middlesex County. Another 
son of old Middlesex now purposes to publish his Life. 
Some delay, however, is inevitable, on account of getting 
many facts required to make the book complete; especi- 
ally those relating to his missionary labors in his native 
county nearly forty years ago. Another missionary. 
Elder Cummings, afterwards organized a branch of the 
Mormon Church in Lowell. 



